Opossum, Swans and Icy Waters

The weather was mild so I went on a few walks this weekend.

We stopped briefly at the Saganashkee Slough to see if we could see any bald eagles and ending up watching this opossum for a while.

It looks like the opossum is looking at us.

The mute swans were swimming at Lake Katherine today near the fish sculpture where a little ice had thawed.

A crack in the lake ice.  The weather was supposed to get above 50 degrees today.

In the ephemeral pond the logs were frozen solid.

I always love this little bridge over the pond.

Looking back from the other side I could see my shadow.  Cypress leaves everywhere.

We took a drive down to Channahon yesterday looking for bald eagles.  No luck.  We first stopped at the Rock Run Rockery and I enjoyed seeing the gull reflections on the ice.  Without a scope it was hard to identify all the birds.  Then we headed over to the 4 Rivers Environmental center, which was a wonderful place, but we had run out of time, so did not spend much time there.  I saw my first hairy woodpecker in the woods there.

Back at home the squirrels and blue jays occasionally have some crabapples.  The woodpeckers come for the suet.

The serviceberry branches I brought inside in mid-January are just starting to open.

Monarch Threats and Winter Birds

You may have heard of the disappearance of the well-known conservationist that has been protecting the monarch butterflies that migrate to Mexico and winter there.  Homero Gomez was last seen on January 13th.  Monarchs have a number of threats including illegal logging that reduces the size of their winter habitat in Michoacán.

I recently finished reading a book by conservation biologist Nick Haddad called The Last Butterflies.

This book took me a while to read, but I enjoyed it.  It was interesting if you like reading about scientific experiments in the wild and that sort of thing.  One of the last chapters was about the migrating eastern North American monarch.  Much like the passenger pigeon, there are still millions of monarchs, but they face a number of threats that could wipe them out, including threats to their wintering grounds in Mexico.  Here in the United States there is a loss of habitat as well as threats from pesticides.  Why does this matter?  Monarch caterpillars and butterflies are the most well known and loved insects.  They are like the canary in the coal mine.  When they decline, despite efforts to assist them, we can guess that many other insects that we care less about but that are very important are also facing numerous threats.

I am looking forward to getting some milkweed plants from an acquaintance at the Palos forest preserve restoration project who has promised me some plants in April.  I have had no luck planting milkweed from seeds.  I have swamp milkweed and butterfly weed, but am eager to plant some asclepias syriaca (common milkweed), too.

Another important thing gardeners can focus on is nectar plants in the autumn when monarch are migrating south.  Below are a few pictures from my garden.

Monarchs on sedum in September.  One day this past year I looked out and saw six monarch feasting on the sedum nectar.

That same day the monarchs were sipping on the Agastache ‘Blue Fortune.’

Monarch on zinnia

But we are still in the very middle of winter, so I will post some winter bird pictures as well.

Male red-bellied woodpecker snacking on suet.

Two downy woodpeckers wait for the red-bellied woodpecker to leave.  The feeder is hanging by a string so it swings around when birds peck on it.  Notice that we just pruned off a few lower branches on the chinquapin oak tree.

I have enjoyed having the downy woodpeckers visit the yard more frequently this week.

The house sparrows look for bits of suet that may have landed below the feeder.

The mourning doves arrived to check out the action.

The European staring gives it a try.

Looks like the squirrel managed to get a chunk of it.

White-breasted nuthatch

When we pruned the trees I brought in some serviceberry branches to see if they would open inside.  I have no idea if that will work.

Sunrise on our street.  The days are getting longer!

 

Beauty and the Beasts

OK, no real pictures of beasts in this post, but when you step into a nature preserve the animals you meet are wild, not domesticated, and that can be an adventure.  The beauty part is the gorgeous, snowy landscape we encountered on our Saturday morning walk!

The snow outlined every tiny branch as we started our walk this morning in a nearby forest preserve in Cook County.

The trail had an interesting pattern, as the snow covered each twig and leaf on the ground, but melted when it met the clay path.

We noticed animal tracks climbing a tree.

A closer look at raccoon tracks

With snow covering everything we made our way carefully down the hill to the stream.

The water was flowing in the stream.  We found some large stones where we could step and cross over without getting wet.

We followed a horse / animal trail so that we would not get lost, as everything looks the same with the snow cover.  Up ahead, through the shrubs, we glimpsed two white-tailed deer run through the forest.

When we stopped to listen we could hear an emergency vehicle, an airplane, and also a bird.  Looking around I spotted a male red-bellied woodpecker.

A little further down the path we stopped to listen and heard some howling and yipping coyotes, maybe chasing those deer we saw or something else.  We could not see them, but they were somewhere off to our left.  We both picked up pointy branches and decided to head back out to the main trail.  Coyotes don’t see people as potential prey, but when there are a group of them and it is not our backyard we wanted to be ready to stand our ground and scare them if they were nearby.  After that we did not hear them again.  Sorry, no pictures of deer or coyotes!

Back at home, there was just a thin layer of snow that was mostly melted by the afternoon.

The male northern cardinal, a frequent visitor, is a beauty!

January 1, 2020

Happy New Year!

Snow Crocus emerges.

I first noticed this snow crocus on Christmas Day, which is the earliest I have seen it appear.

Daytime moon

Dark-eyed junco on liatris.  It looks like it got a seed to nourish it on a winter day.

We had about an inch of snow yesterday morning, which should melt today and tomorrow.  It has been a mild winter.

The cyclamen is blooming for the fifteenth year!  This autumn I refinished the wood counter in my greenhouse window.

We started the new year with a wonderful hike at Cranberry Slough in the forest preserve.  The trail was icy, but not slippery, and the only person we met was riding a bike.

One last shot to say goodbye to 2019. Mute swans flying over Lake Katherine last weekend. 

Cap Sauer Holdings

One of our favorite parts of the Cook County Forest Preserves are the Cap Sauer Holdings.  We parked on the south side of the Calumet Sag Road (Route 83) and walked in on a tiny path where no dogs are allowed.  As we walked south the traffic sounds gradually faded.

We walked uphill until we were walking on top of a ridge.  We saw no one on our morning walk but constantly heard airplanes overhead.

We walked by a wetland where we hear frogs in the spring.  But is was cold and quiet.

We paused to look at fungi and try to identify a bird call.  Or was it a squirrel?  I heard a woodpecker drilling on a tree.

Then I saw a movement, and realized it was a coyote.  I tried to get Dan to see it.

I managed to get one clearer picture.  There were actually two coyotes and they gradually slunk away from us further into the woods.  It is a good place to hide and they blend in well with the gray and brown landscape this time of year.  They looked healthy with pretty fur.

As we walked out I could see a frozen stream flowing downhill.  It was a gray day and these pictures may seem dull, although it was a beautiful walk.  This is a wonderful place to see spring wildflowers.

We saw a lot of these tennis ball looking fruit near the trailhead.  Looking on Google it seems like these are from an Osage Orange tree.

Back home, my attention was drawn to a flock of starlings that were checking out the birdbath in the backyard.

The house sparrows were attracted by the racket.  The water is off and on frozen these days.

The male northern cardinal briefly stopped by.

The female northern cardinal looked for a meal on the ground.

The robin tried out a crabapple.

We are almost at the shortest day of the year.  Time for winter walks, and mostly cozy time indoors, and holiday celebrations!

 

Lake Katherine Reflections and a Raptor

Yesterday morning I had a quiet walk around Lake Katherine in Palos Heights.

The still water reflected the trees and the clouds.

It was a cold morning and the mute swans seemed to be sleeping with occasional grooming.

Mute swan

Mute swan

There were not many people out, but two women were laughing and taking picutres on the bridge at the pond surrounded by cypress trees in autumn colors.

Water is high in the pond this year.

I see that invasive phragmites are taking root in the pond.

When I first arrived at the lake it was birdy and I was trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to take pictures of white-breasted nuthatches, cardinals, downy woodpeckers, goldfinches, and some unknow sparrows.

Then I noticed a red-tailed hawk land in a nearby tree.

After a while it flew over to another tree.  Can you see it?

I got a closer look at this predator.  I wondered if he had already had his breakfast or was hunting.

Here is a view of the back feathers.  I understand that red-tailed hawks don’t get red tails until they are two years old.  The tail did not appear to be red.

One more shot of the red-tailed hawk.  can you see the yellow at the base of the beak?

Other than the swans there were only mallards in the lake.  There was plenty of quacking.  The geese must have already flown away for the day before I arrived.

Duck getting breakfast.

Parts of the lake were still frozen.  The temperatures have been swinging above and below the freezing point these past weeks.

Fungi on a log were covered with a pretty frost.

Books:  I am currently reading Troubled Water: What’s Wrong with What We Drink, by Seth Siegel.  Lots of food for thought and a pretty interesting read.  Do you drink water from the tap?  A lot of us don’t trust it.  The book it not out to get villains, but says there are a lot of bystanders.  It is a complicated issue, but a serious one.  I am just on the fourth chapter but I understand more about why no one is taking action to solve the problem, which is getting worse each year. (I think it might involve taxes and getting re-elected.)  I am looking forward to what suggestions and solutions I will find in the book.

Crabapple Tree

The crabapple tree outside the kitchen window has been catching my attention recently.

It snowed on Halloween, but the next day the sun came out and I love the blue sky and fluffy clouds above the snow outlined crabapple tree.  On the left the chinquapin oak tree was showing its fall colors.

Backing up, here is the view from the kitchen window.

The dark-eyed juncos have arrived, and are winter residents in our neighborhood.

Male house finch

The crabapples probably get tastier after a freeze or two.  Though they probably are not terrific tasting since usually quite a few little apples persist on the branches over the winter.

The crabapples are at various stages of ripeness.  The tree is full of crabapples this year and we hardly had any last year.

Profusion crabapple tree this past spring.  The weather must have been just right to get the flowers pollinated and set into little apples.

The squirrels have come a number of times for a snack.

Golden-crowned kinglet migrating through Chicagoland.  It is always fun to look out the kitchen window and see what birds are stopping by.

The bark of the tree does not look very healthy to me.  Does this mean the tree is dying?  The leaves get diseased and fall off early each year.  I have not diagnosed the problem yet.  We did have robins successfully nest in this tree early in the year though, when there were still leaves.

As a side note, I saw a black swallowtail caterpillar in the fennel on November fifth, the week after the snow.  We are in cleanup mode these days and have started a big leaf and grass compost pile.  I am leaving more plants standing in place this year to provide habitat for wintering insects and other critters that are good bird food.  Insects are the foundation of the food chain, right?

Dan and I had a fantastic walk in the woods this morning, starting at the Wolf Road Woods trail in the Palos Forest Preserve.

At Tomahawk Slough we saw a very fluffed up great blue heron.  The temperature was below freezing last night and thin ice covered parts of the slough.

This shot was from our walk last week at the Willow Springs Forest Preserve.  It is time to pull out the cozy jackets, wooly scarves and mittens, and warm boots and enjoy cold weather hiking.

Nasturtiums, Mums and More

As most plants die away some continue to bloom cheerily.  We have not had a real frost in the backyard yet, though I saw frost on our front lawn one day.  We have a little warmer, more protected microclimate in the backyard.

Orange nasturtium

Orange nasturtiums and alyssum along the fence.  These have variegated leaves.  I planted 3 packets of Jewel mix nasturtiums around the yard, if I remember correctly.

More traditional looking leaves.  This giant group grew out onto the patio.  The squirrel jumped on them at one point but they grew back.

Yellow nasturtiums have a touch of orange and red.

Reddish orange nasturtium.  I did not get a picture of the dark red nasturtium.

Coral mums.  This picture was taken about a week ago.

Coral mums and pollinator

Some of the pollinators prefer the flowers to be a bit more ripe.

I looked for a bumblebee today and found one on the Agastache ‘blue boa.’

On Saturday, 10/19, there were two black swallowtail caterpillars chomping on my curly parsley.  I did not see them today, so hope they got away somewhere.

Virginia creeper

Aronia melanocarpa, black chokeberry ‘Viking black.’  I planted these two bushes last year and they grew nicely, though I did not get any berries this year.  The garden around them this year was mostly fallow, though I grew some sunflowers between them after the daffodils.

Our favorite vegetable this time of year is curly kale.  After we finish cooking our soup on the weekend we throw big bunches of chopped-up kale in, and it softens up in the hot soup pot.

The squirrels have been tearing around the yard, digging holes in the lawn and everywhere else, planting their nuts for the winter.  We don’t have acorns in our oak tree this year, after a bumper crop last year.

Fall colors are just starting in the yard….

October Flowers and Spooky Spiders

When I started designing my garden, the first thing I worked on was autumn flowers.  I love them, and it is a wonderful time of year to have them begin to bloom after slowly growing over the summer.  My goal is to always have something blooming from March through November or the first frost. This helps the insects and pollinators and cheers me up, too!

I have only been posting about once a month this summer, so there are too many pictures to pick from!

The big attraction this week has been the asters.

Can you see the green bee on these asters?

I think this is some kind of sweat bee.  I see them each year on the asters.

Hoverfly on aster

Corn earworm moth on aster

One day I saw a lot of fluttering on the asters from my office window.  I went out and found six to eight painted lady butterflies on the asters and they were also visiting the zinnias.

A few monarch butterflies joined in.

The goldenrod is mostly finished now, but it is so vibrant when it first opens.  Here with Russian sage.

The flies love the goldenrod and seem to like it as the flowers fade.

A few gaillardia still smiling

Zinnias and alyssum

Black swallowtail butterfly on marigolds

In the foreground the red flowers of pineapple sage are starting to bloom, a favorite of the hummingbirds.  The two huge sunflowers in the garden are leaning over.  I cut off the spent flowers and new flowers keep appearing.

Sunflowers keep blooming

Hummingbird rests in crabapple tree.  We had almost no crabapples last year and a bumper crop this year, though the leaves fell early.

The boltonia bloomed in mid-September.  A grasshopper enjoys the warm resting spot on the fence.

Pink turtlehead flowers. This picture is from about a month ago, and they are just finishing up now.

Garden spider lurking in the leaves of the pink turtlehead flowers

The foggy morning accentuated the spider webs in the garden and this garden spider looks spooky in its web.  I did not need to buy any spooky merchandise to get this picture!

The orb spiders have been very active on the patio.  One morning I came out to find 3 large orb spider webs near where I was going to hang laundry.

I found a few common meadow crickets in our little “meadow.”  I still hear crickets at night.

On a walk recently I saw this eastern shieldback katydid.  The phrase “on its last legs” came to mind.  That seems to be true of a lot of insect at this time of year, though it could just be that they are slow after a cold night.

Dragonfly – not moving too quickly, but looking beautiful!

It’s pepper season!  The brussel sprout and kale are great, though the last batch of tomatoes are taking their time ripening.  Organically grown food is the main focus of the garden, but I love the flowers, and all the variety keeps the garden pests under control.

Recent Reading:  Grandma Gatewood Walks

Loved this book!