Down In It

Yesterday, I had joined my cat in looking out the window for a few moments. I asked him if there was anything interesting. He didn't answer. I told him it had been a while since I'd seen a fox. Well, while getting a glass of water in the middle of the night (1:45am) today, I looked out another window to see what might be going on outside. I spotted what I initially thought was a small deer in front of neighbor AM's house, but soon realized it was a fox as it trotted in my direction and then took a turn up the driveway into the backyard.

Two American Sweetgums

November 8, 2025

Last week, I was talking to neighbors JM & CM as they were doing some yard work, and JM pointed out an American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) on my property as we were talking about the various trees around. I hadn't noticed it before amongst all the thistle, but it was about five feet tall. It's between the two hickories I planted last August that did not survive. It must have grown a lot in the past year, because I didn't register it when putting in the hickories. Then yesterday, I found another, about the same height, on the southern-facing hillside, just behind a boxwood.

We're near the northern edge of its native region. Nice to find another native, particularly without having to do the work to put it in myself. However, in the three sources I read about it from (Wikipedia, USDA Plants Database, and the Arbor Day Foundation), there was no mention of it being a host plant to lepidoptera species, which is somewhat unusual. The Arbor Day Foundation page had the most information on its benefits to wildlife, stating "American sweetgum seeds are eaten by eastern goldfinches, purple finches, sparrows, mourning doves, northern bobwhites and wild turkeys. Small mammals such as chipmunks, red squirrels and gray squirrels also enjoy the fruits and seeds."

Light frost

November 7, 2025

observations | permalink

There was a light frost last night. As I was taking the compost bucket up to dump it into the compost bin around 7:45am, the grass had a white/bluish tint to it, although it didn't crunch beneath my feet.

Wrens

October 9, 2025

The other day I saw a pair of what I thought were Carolina wrens on the terrace. But looking at the Sibley guide now, I'm leaning more toward house wrens, because of their slenderness and color (grayish/brownish on top and somewhat dull yellow on belly and sides). The Merlin bird app has suggested Carolina wrens a number of times from their calls, and I think I've seen them on the hillside in front of the terrace, but I think these were different. So maybe both are here. Or maybe the other ones I've seen are song sparrows, which are of a similar size and stoutness. I'm not good at identifying birds yet. Anyway, they were around and under the asters in front of the older peach tree. When I came up, they went to the large pokeweed.

Groundhog in tunnel

October 3, 2025

I was able to get close enough to take a decent picture of the groundhog. It had been on the other side of the wall, but when I started walking that way it went into the tunnel. I quietly stepped around the other side and got a few pics. As I was taking a video after this picture, I made a too-fast movement and it ducked back the other way. It's really an excellent placement for a little tunnel.

A groundhog sticking its head up from a tunnel it made underneath the rock wall. It may be giving me the side-eye because I've had more success in keeping it out of my vegetable garden lately.

Blue jays in lilac

September 22, 2025

Watching blue jays in front tree, wondering what they’re doing. I either don’t look out that way much or they aren’t there much. But I see: they seem to be grabbing lilac tree seeds, and then holding them against a limb and breaking with their bills. They're capable birds.

Asters blooming

September 19, 2025

Most of the asters, mainly on the terrace though there are a couple elsewhere, are in bloom. Ten days ago I noted that one was about to bloom. I think it was two or three days later that it did, and in the meantime the others have started. I think there is at least one additional species I didn't notice before. It's in the cluster in front of the larger of the two peaches, the one planted two years ago, but haven't been able to identify it yet. Not a lot of bees on them yet. I remember feeling the buzzing around them last year. Maybe it was later in the year.

Asters

September 9, 2025

I took a stroll around the terrace today and noticed that an aster was about to bloom, and then when I looked closer I realized there were actually two different kinds of asters growing right next to each other. One was shorter and more bush-like, while the other was taller and just had a few stems on its own. I used Inaturalist's Seek app to identify them, and it came up with small white aster (Symphyotrichum racemosum) and hairy white oldfield aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum). So that was cool - I only thought I had one type. But then, as I continued my stroll, I found one that had purplish leaves and stems. Seek identified it as a calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum). So not one, not two, but (at least) three types of asters since I let it go wild when we moved in three years ago. Seek has been wrong before, so I need work to verify those IDs, but it's at least a start.

Monarch caterpillars

August 23, 2025

wildlife, lepidoptera, observations, milkweed | permalink

I checked (though I can't say too thoroughly) the milkweeds on the patio and in front today and found four monarch caterpillars. Two chunky ones near the patio, this time on the butterfly milkweeds, which is interesting because previously there were 13 on the plants here but 12 were on the common milkweed and only one was on the butterfly. Out front I finally found some (and had once again earlier seen a Monarch butterfly on them, I assume to lay eggs): a small one and a medium one.

A medium-sized monarch caterpillar eating the not-fully-grown seedpod of a butterfly milkweed plant.

A bunch of Monarch caterpillars

August 16, 2025

wildlife, lepidoptera, observations, milkweed | permalink

My daughter alerted me to a butterfly on our back patio and told me to come see it. It was a Monarch, flitting around the milkweeds planted there. I'd also seen it there not too long ago, when I thought it might be laying eggs. I don't know how soon Monarch eggs hatch, but decided to check the plants for any sign of caterpillars, and counted 13 of them, a bit smaller (I'd say between 1/4 and 3/4 of an inch long) than the first one I saw just over a week before. I haven't yet checked the front patch again, where there are many more plants, but so far I haven't found any out there.

New natives

August 16, 2025

I identified three new native plants in what I'm currently calling the southern woodland edge (a fancy name for the strip at the corner of the road and our driveway that I've reclaimed from grass): common dewberry (Rubus flagellaris), common copperleaf (Acalypha rhomboidea), and white vervain (Verbena urticifolia). I also realized that there was a potential that what I thought was American plantain (apparently pronounced "plan-tin", not "plan-tane", Plantago rugelii) was actually a different species, and so went looking for some information on how to properly identify it. I found a page from the website "Edible Wild Foods", which had an excellent video comparing it with a similar, but non-native, species, Plantago majora. Thankfully it appears I have the native one, or at least of those I looked carefully at.

Monarch caterpillar

August 7, 2025

wildlife, lepidoptera, observations, milkweed | permalink

I was just about to come inside for the night and I thought I'd check the milkweeds for signs of monarch caterpillars. First I saw what looked like some leaf munching, and then I found the culprit (or one of them at least). Very happy to see the work to get some colonies of milkweed started has begun to pay off. And looks like I was right a couple weeks ago when I thought a butterfly I saw was a monarch.

Small monarch caterpillar on an also small common milkweed plant. In the out-of-focus background is my back patio and the back of my house.

Reaching peak tomato

August 4, 2025

vegetables, tomatoes, observations | permalink

Seems like today is the start of having a good amount of tomatoes every day for the rest of the growing season. It won't be long before we've reached our capacity to eat them and will need to give some away. Maybe two weeks? I may also make an extra batch or two of marina sauce to freeze.

Grape and large round tomatoes in a little wicker basket, with a small handful of green beans.

Possible monarch butterfly

July 26, 2025

wildlife, observations, lepidoptera, milkweed | permalink

One of the things I wrote down to do today was to go out and look for Monarch caterpillars, since I've seen a few people on the fediverse post pictures of them recently. Well, no caterpillars, but I'm about 90% sure I saw a butterfly around the milkweeds in the front yard. There's a slim chance that it was the eastern tiger swallowtail I saw yesterday, but I don't think so: this one seemed more orange than yellow and its behavior was definitely different. I couldn't get within five feet of it to take a picture - it would just flit away, sometimes pretty high in the air, and the circle back around. Hopefully it laid some eggs!

Peaches dried up or moldy

July 26, 2025

trees, fruit, observations | permalink

All of the peaches left (about 10 on the tree planted in 2024 on the terrace) were dried up/moldy. I'd been waiting to see if they'd get any bigger - they were only about an inch and a half in diameter. They were supposed to ripen in mid August, but that's based on Ithaca, NY and so maybe it's mid July here. It could just also be the fact that it's only a two-year-old tree. I wasn't even expecting to get any peaches this year. Though I'm still disappointed I missed the chance to try one.

Eastern tiger swallowtail

July 25, 2025

This is the third summer I've been at my house, and I think the first time I've spotted a non-white butterfly. Maybe I'm paying attention more, maybe wildlife finds the place more welcoming now. Either way, happy to see an eastern tiger swallowtail.

Goldfinch

July 15, 2025

Caught a glimpse of a goldfinch flitting from the hillside to the front of the neighbor's house. For as bright as they are, this is only the second time this year I've seen one.

June beetles

July 7, 2025

I saw two common green June beetles (native) on the terrace today, and identified the white butterflies as small whites (unfortunately non-native).

Lightning bugs

June 28, 2025

Saw lightning bugs somewhere near the middle of the month if not earlier. Still going, more now.

New growth on asters

June 27, 2025

New growth on asters is up about a foot, in some places more. I thought (probably mistakenly) that last year there had been new growth on the woody stalks from the previous year, but not seeing any now.

Hawks

June 19, 2025

I saw two of the hawks, which I think are bald eagles, flying pretty high up around 1:30pm.

Hummingbird

June 13, 2025

Just saw a hummingbird while sitting on the patio. It checked out the red handle on the rain barrel drain, then a couple flowers, and flew off. Iridescent green on its back, bright red around its neck.

Oak-leaf hydrangeas

June 11, 2025

shrubs, observations | permalink

Oak-leaf hydrangeas are in full bloom.

Peonies done blooming

June 6, 2025

Peonies are done blooming.

Bald eagle

June 2, 2025

Bald eagle flying overhead (1:30 pm).

Lilac tree blooming

June 1, 2025

The lilac tree out front is in full bloom; hadn't noticed it until now.

Bald eagle

June 1, 2025

Bald eagle flying overhead (11:22 am).

Goldfinches

June 1, 2025

Spotted goldfinches for the first time this year - two flying from AM's backyard heading through our front yard.

Peach count

May 31, 2025

fruit, trees, observations | permalink

Counted the peaches on the peach trees: 30 on the one on the terrace, 13 on the one in the backyard (and none on the newest, naturally).

Apple count

May 23, 2025

fruit, trees, observations | permalink

I went around and counted how many apples have started: 1 on the Crimson Crisp, none on the Honeycrisp, 2 on the Winecrisp, and 4 on the Black Arkansas. (And obviously none on the Sundance, just planted a couple months ago.)

Fox and minivan

May 8, 2025

I saw the fox for the first time in a while, at least in our yard. A week or so ago, I saw it, or one of its family [side note: I need to learn how to identify male and female foxes so I can stop calling them "it"] a few blocks towards town running in our direction. Tonight, as I was doing dishes, I saw it slowly trotting along the edge of our driveway toward the road. I moved to the front window to watch it. It spotted me, but didn't really seem to care. It then continued a few feet, but stopped to investigate something in the grass. Then I saw a minivan driving very slowly on the road, which then came to full stop about ten or fifteen feet before our driveway. It was very nice, and unfortunately unusual, to see. So kudos to that person for both paying attention and also stopping. But the fox did not trust it: rather than continue on its path across the road in front of the minivan, it cut through the neighbor's yard and then crossed about ten feet behind it. The minivan then also continued on. I wish more animal-driver interactions were like this.

Oaks

April 24, 2025

The red oak in front of the gazebo, that MH and I transplanted on March 12, 2023, and is now about 8 or 9 feet tall, began to leaf out. Makes me slightly worried for the third one that I planted, in October of last year, since it's not showing any sign of life yet. But this first one also took a little while to come to life that first year after being moved, so we'll see.

Crows

April 21, 2025

I just saw two pairs of crows flying overhead while I was in the backyard. Mainly of note because I thought there was only one pair regularly around here, because I only ever saw one at a time before.

Deer

April 21, 2025

I just watched a doe and what I assume is her kid from last year walk through the front yard, about 6:15 in the morning. The mother was in front by about 20 feet, and heading the opposite way than they do at night - from east to west. The yearling nibbled on the new spice bush and then spent some time reaching up to eat some of the non-native cherry blossoms. Then they crossed the road at their usual spot to go back to wherever exactly it is that they spend their day (I assume).

Tomato starts

April 15, 2025

vegetables, observations, tomatoes | permalink

All the grape tomatoes planted from seeds (from last year's volunteer) on March 12 now have first true leaves. Two of the four heirloom tomatoes planted from seeds (from tomato bought from grocery store) on March 31 do as well; not sure the other two are going to survive. One of the five grape tomatoes (again, from last year's volunteer) started on March 19 has a true leaf, none yet on other 4.

Tomato starts

April 7, 2025

tomatoes, vegetables, observations | permalink

First (tiny) true leaves on a couple tomato seedlings have started.

Dogwood

April 6, 2025

Dogwood is starting to break bud.

Groundhog

March 25, 2025

I spotted the groundhog for the first time this year, as I went to plant some beet seeds in the new raised bed. It was surprisingly fast - took a flying leap from the direction of the last blueberry, over the pile of rocks to behind the compost bins, and was gone when I checked just 30 seconds later. I assume through the hole at the bottom of the rock wall it dug rather than into the brush pile. I'm not sure if that hole is just a tunnel to the hillside or if there's also a borrow within it, but no sign of it in the yard.

Milkweed propagation

March 16, 2025

herbaceous, milkweed, observations | permalink

Three butterfly milkweeds have sprouted, each from a separate pot, but all from the ones planted on Feb 27 or 28. Three beebalms have also come up.

Snow!

November 22, 2024

observations, weather | permalink

First snowfall of the year. It was mixed with rain - and actually just rain most of the day - but there were at least a couple periods with snow.

Rain!

November 21, 2024

observations, weather | permalink

It's been raining the last 3 days! That ! is excitement, because there has been almost no rain here going on at least a month and a half. There was a brief, light rain about ten days ago, but otherwise it's been so dry. Now everything has had a great soak and I'm less worried about the things I've recently planted, but also grateful that I now have at least a week off watering things, if not much longer.

Morning glory blooming

June 12, 2024