To all the birds I could not name….I saw you out there, in your winter plumage and bird glory and you made my day!
Wild & Wonderful Weeds: Tickseed
Fall in the Piedmont of NC is a rollercoaster of heat waves and stunning fall weather. It’s the slow transition from green to auburn, crimson and gold. It’s the last bloom for flowers before winter settles in on us. It’s hard to drive around town and not admire the resilient tickseed wildflowers in full fall bloom this October.
Owling in Suburbia
Inviting Hope Home: Let Leaves Lie
Let Leaves Lie.
In doing so you create shelter for wild creatures. You retain the eggs and larvae that are attached to the leaves as they fall. You provide a food source for many wild animals. You protect delicate plants by surrounding them in leaves, protected for the winter. You retain soil moisture and reduce the need for watering.
The Fruits of Their Labor
A Great Migration
It’s a wonder to see how pleasantly symbiotic the whole relationship is. The milkweed relinquishes its leaves while maintaining life sustaining energy in its deep taproot and regrows. The caterpillar receives its nourishment, including the bitter toxin from the plant that provides a layer of protection from predators, even as an adult. Pollinators will be by eventually to pollinate the flowers which will create pods of wind-dispersed seeds. Human interactions don’t ever seem this smoothly cooperative.
Did I Smell A Bear?
Leaves of Three
And that’s where my summer started this year. Identifying the multiple 20+ foot vines growing in the hedge row that my neighbors own. After a year of neglect of the living fence between our yards, something had to be done. I am the neighbor with children and pets that play outside, so I took it upon myself to remove the poison ivy.
Have You Ever Seen Vultures Snuggle?
A Night in the Life
At the end of one of the videos, we see him glide toward a large tree, drifting down at first then kind of curving up to grasp the bark, holding tight, not on the perch of a horizontal branch but on the vertical plane of the trunk. We could see his eyes illuminated by the camera. And then we saw the second set of eyes. The squirrel was not alone!
