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!

 

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!

Small Creatures, Giant Sunflowers

Here are some of the pollinators and other critters that have been visiting the garden this summer.  Also, the giant sunflowers are crazy!!  I had no idea when I planted them how big they would get.

Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly on zinnia

Black swallowtail butterfly on zinnia

Black swallowtail caterpillar on curly parsley

Red-spotted purple butterfly on sedum

Red-spotted purple butterfly on sedum

The sedum is starting to turn pink now and attracting a lot of pollinators.

Hoverfly on phlox

Common buckeye butterfly on cucumber plant

Painted lady butterfly on Agastache hyssop

Large bumblebee on Agastache hyssop

Unknown small creature on nasturtium leaf

Nasturtium flower

I think this is a silvery checkerspot butterfly on marigolds.  This butterfly has sunflower for its host plant, which makes sense.  Though it also looks like a pearl crescent butterfly.

Posing by the sunflower on 8/7/19 when the first flower opened on the two tall sunflower plants.

On 8/26/19 I took this picture of the crazy sunflower plants waving above the garden.

When we got back to the garden after a short road trip one of the sunflowers had tipped over.  I cut off the heaviest flower heads and propped it up enough that I could walk underneath it.  The bird, bees and butterflies love these flowers!

Sunny summer day…

Add in the sound of cicadas…  This is one of several cicada shells I found; this one on a collard leaf.

I am not sure if this is a grasshopper or katydid.

When I was young I spent a lot of time getting dragonflies to sit on my finger.  I had fun doing that again.  This beautiful blue dragonfly was sitting on the clothes line and stepped onto my warm finger and rested for a while.

We just took a short vacation and visited a lot of parks and nature preserves in Illinois and Missouri.  This dragonfly was spotted at the Sue and Wes Dixon Waterfowl Refuge yesterday.  They have an area called Sandy Hollow with wonderful hiking paths.  Just guessing, but this dragonfly might be a brown spotted yellow wing dragonfly.  It was resting in the prairie as the morning warmed up.

September has arrived, but I am holding on to summer a little longer!

Flowers of the Field

When I started seriously gardening over ten years ago, I was mostly interested in color schemes, height and placement of flowers, and having something blooming in all seasons.  That is still interesting to me, but since then my focus has moved to growing more food and planting as many native plants as I can.  So I still have non-natives in the yard, but I keep adding native plants, as they attract many more pollinators and provide habitat for a greater diversity of wildlife.  This time of year the abundance of flowers is really wonderful!

Purple coneflowers, monarda – wild bergamot in the background, and Ratibida pinnata, sometimes called prairie coneflower, yellow coneflower or gray-headed coneflower.

I bought this Ratibida – gray-headed coneflower – at the farmer’s market today and I hope it survives the heat these next few weeks, as I usually don’t plant anything this time of year.

View from the kitchen window.

For some reason I bought a lot of packets of sunflower seeds this year, so I planted them all over the backyard.

Monarch on sunflower.  The goldfinches love to eat the seeds.

Two tall varieties of sunflowers in the vegetable garden.  The two in the back are so tall that they have not even started to flower yet.  Can’t wait to see how big they get.

Besides the sunflowers we have a lot of Echinacea purpurea – purple coneflowers. They seem to be multiplying and the goldfinches love them, too.

Black swallowtail butterfly on purple coneflower – taken from the kitchen window.

The monarda – wild bergamot – really took off this year, and it has been swarming with bumblebees and all kinds of pollinators.

A hummingbird moth or clearwing moth of some sort has been visiting all the flowers.

Liatris, blazing star.  I now have two nice clumps growing in the garden.

Rudbeckia hirta, black-eyed susans.

Gateway, Joe Pye weed.  I like the look of the flower as it gets ready to open.

The pollinators like the Joe Pye weed when all the flowers are open and messy.  This is an ailanthus webworm moth.

The fennel plant is now taller than I am and blooming, attracting a wasp and an ant to the nectar.

The male house finch can be seen now and then snacking on the sedum, which has not started blooming yet.

Did the robin enjoy the bath?  Sparrows never miss a chance to join the fun.

But who is this visiting the garden at dawn?

Is this stealthy, fat neighbor cat looking for a bird, a rabbit, a squirrel, or a chipmunk?  Salvia blue hill flowers in the background.

I found two of these large bugs/beetles on the stalk of my new gray-headed coneflower after I planted it.  Do cats eat those kinds of bugs?  Or do birds eat them?

Common buckeye butterfly we saw on a walk last week.  I see monarchs just about every day in the summer in my yard, but there are many butterfly species I rarely see because they like a variety of host plants that I probably don’t have in my garden.  It is just a reminder that wild habitats need protection.

Bobolinks at Bartel Grasslands

Last weekend I visited Bartel Grasslands for the first time.  It is part of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, Illinois.  I had my hiking boots on for mud and my bug spray, but it was not bad for exploring on the trail when I was there around 8:00 in the morning.

Bobolink

There were quite a few bobolinks around the grasslands.

I had only seen a bobolink once before in the far distance at Orland Grasslands, so it was a treat to be closer.  This one seemed to be annoyed and was probably guarding a nest, so I kept moving.

This shot shows the elaborate feather patterns on the back.

As I started down the trail I could hear a meadowlark calling from the parking lot, so I turned around to take a picture.  This was the first time I had seen one.

I am not sure if it is an eastern or western meadowlark.

I enjoyed listening to it singing!

I am not sure what kink of bird this is, but it was pretty.

I think this is a female common yellowthroat.

It must have had a nest nearby.

I followed this trail for a while.

Monarch butterfly

I could see a little wetland to the east of me.  Across the road are the Killdeer Wetlands, where there were a lot of red-winged blackbirds.

What a great refuge for these bobolinks!

More Fall Color

It has been a cool month and we have been enjoying the fall colors this past week or so.

I think this is the prettiest the chinquapin oak has been in the fall.  Usually the leaves are an orange brown color that is not too special, but this year the color was a little more pink/orange.  Of course, it is hard to capture in a photo.

Carpinus caroliniana – American hornbeam.  The leaves are pinkest where they get the most sunlight.  There are lilacs on either side.  I like the lilacs, but I am tempted to get rid of the one on the right as this tree grows, to give it plenty of room.

Zooming in from the upstairs window I was able to capture the orange/pink color a little better.

We planted two hornbeams at the same time.  They are on either side of the lilac.  They came from Possibility Place, where we have gotten the majority of our native trees and shrubs.  I am beginning to wonder if the tree to the right of the green lilac is not really carpinus, but is ostrya, because the leaves never turn pink and always stay very yellow.  But I am not sure yet, and will need to keep researching.  The catkins and fruit do not appear to be the same on these two trees.

Zooming in on the right side of the picture above, there is the yellow “hornbeam” on the left, the fothergilla turning bright colors in the front, and the very yellow spicebush on the right.

The asters were some of the last flowers to bloom in the garden.

I was surprised to see this moth still flying around in early November.  The coral mums are great places for the last pollinators.

Saturday we took a walk on country lane in the Palos forest preserve.  The sun came out to brighten the orange leaves!

Today we took another walk in the forest preserves.  The green leaves of the invasive bush honeysuckle really stand out, when most other leaves have fallen.  After all our years of hiking here we were amazed to walk for over an hour on a trail that was completely new to us in this area.  The thing is, some of these trails are too buggy in the heat of the summer, so this was a great day to hike here.  Part of the trail was very rugged, so it was good that it was not too muddy or too icy to go up and down the hills and through stream beds.

A toad crossed the path in front of us.  The path was between a pond and the forest.  Where would the toad go this time of year?  It was facing away from the pond and moving slowly in the cold weather…

Not sure of the name of this lake in the forest preserve, but I think it is the first time we have walked past it!  We did not see many waterfowl on this gray day.

Back at home after our walk it was time to mulch up the fallen oak leaves and build up the compost pile, which you can see in the back right hand corner of the picture.  Last week we went and got some great dark colored composted manure from the nearby horse stables.  In the picture it looks like dark soil in the garden beds.  We are still eating the kale, collards and brussel sprouts from our garden.

Sandhill Cranes:  While working on the compost pile I could hear the sandhill cranes calling and looked up to see four v-shaped groups overhead flying toward those corn fields in Indiana.  Maybe there were 40 – 50.  Love it!

Bird Visitors and Residents

The flowers are still blooming, but we had some brief snow flurries today….  The following photos have been taken over the past 3 weeks as I enjoy the visitors to the garden.

Migrating yellow-rumped warbler on the bird bath.

The way the party started was that the blue-jay came for a drink and made a racket.

After that the sparrows came and tried to see how many could be in the bird bath at once.

With all that noise the robins started to arrive.

The yellow-rumped warblers hopped around on the grass until the bird bath was empty and then several of them gave it a try.  This is a side view of the bird.  A lot of these small warblers look alike to me and I am gradually learning the differences.

Here you can see the difference between the size of a sparrow and the smaller warbler.

Earlier this week the mourning dove came for a visit.  They are higher in the pecking order than robins and scare them away.  Once doves arrive they like to sit for a while.

Just after I published my last post at the end of September I saw this butterfly on the ‘fireworks’ goldenrod.  It turns out it is a gray hairstreak butterfly.  I don’t remember seeing one in my garden before.

Last week I took this picture of the zinnias and pineapple sage.  I saw the hummingbird on the pineapple sage a couple of times.

Last Saturday morning Arrowhead Lake was beautiful with the water temperature warmer than the air temperature, causing steam to rise.

Birding adventure:  I get emails from IBET about birds that have been sighted in Illinois.  A red-necked grebe was sighted in a slough in the forest preserves near us, so on a day off Dan and I headed to the Sag Slough to see if we could see it.  We probably spent an hour looking and hiking around and finally met a young kid with a scope who pointed it out to us.  It was too far away to get a picture.  Reading emails the next day, some of the best birders in the area were not able to get a glimpse when they came looking for this bird, so we felt lucky.  I am not really keeping a life list of birds, but I am gradually viewing more species, and that is rewarding.

September Snapshots

It has been a really busy month for me.  This is the first time I am posting something for about 5 weeks, so I had a lot of pictures I took to choose from.  Here are a few pictures of what is happening now in the garden and has happened this past month.

Asters and goldenrod – Solidago rugosa ‘fireworks.’  I am not sure of the type of aster I have.  They are both great for late pollinators.

This bumblebee was barely moving on the sedum on a cool morning.

The painted lady butterfly was hanging around the giant zinnias yesterday and not too bothered by me.

I enjoy looking at the zinnias from my office window during the day and watching the butterflies come to visit.

This cucumber got away from me because if was hiding underneath the zinnias.  I picked a nice green, juicy cucumber last week, but not sure if I will get any more this year.  It will be hot tomorrow, so maybe!

Here is a shot of part of the vegetable garden.  The cherry tomato quantities have been massive.  I have been getting about one zucchini per week recently.  But the peppers are really taking off now.  There are a lot of them hanging on the pepper plants.  Dan is working on the kale plants for his smoothies.  The collards are all chewed up by the cabbage worms, but still work well in soups.  I threw some swiss chard in the soup today along with oregano and parsley.

Yesterday’s pick of cherry tomatoes.  These have been really sweet and tasty!  Great for my daily salads.

‘Big Bertha Bell’ is the variety of pepper.  I guess it could turn red if it stays on the plant that long.

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The old raspberry canes have been cut down and the new ones tied to the fence to get ready for winter and next summer’s fruit.

Earlier in the month it was acorn time on the chinquapin oak tree.  The squirrels, chipmunks and blue jays were so active.   Within a week or so there was not an acorn to be found on the tree or the ground.  I’m glad our yard feeds the wild creatures.

Chipmunks are so fun to watch.

American goldfinch on purple coneflower a few weeks ago, getting some lunch.  Just this week I was looking out the office window and saw a bright yellow goldfinch on a coneflower.  Such a cheery sight!

The pineapple sage finally started blooming this week.  Will any hummingbirds find this late-blooming tubular flower?

Pink turtlehead flower.  The bumblebees love to fly in and out of each individual flower.  Can you see the grasshopper on the right side of the picture? I am still looking for a praying mantis, but have not seen one this year.

It has not been a good year for alyssum in my garden this year.  I was pleased to see a few little clumps get going.

Dan and I took a wonderful short trip to Wisconsin and Northern Illinois before Labor Day.  This picture, taken at Illinois Beach State Park, reminds me of all the wonderful natural places we visited on sunny, warm days.  Cooler days are coming and they will have their own pleasures to offer.

Recently, on a walk in the forest preserve, Dan took this picture of an eastern bluebird.  There are not so many around, so really fun to see.  It is migration time, so I am keeping my eyes open for different birds in the backyard and woods.