At the beginning of April we downloaded the iNaturalist app on my phone and have been slowly but steadily uploading our nature observations. (The website is much easier to browse through: iNaturalist.ca) So far, we’ve uploaded 57 plants and animals. Our “finds” include salamanders and spiders, lichen and fungi, trees and shrubs, beetles and bees… … Continue reading
Filed under insects …
Spring Peepers 2020
We’ve had a mild, sunny few weeks (give or take a few showery days) and we listened for peepers for a few nights before we heard them on April 13: a very average date for the last 10 years after a pretty middle-of-the-road winter. I need to do some more research on average daily temperature … Continue reading
A soggy spring
It was a cold, wet spring on the whole (and an especially wet May) and everything was a week or two late as a result. April 21, 2019, saw the first few pink blooms open on the magnolia, the first lilac buds and the rhubarb shoots just poking through. May 8 we spotted our first … Continue reading
Dancing aphids
These are Red Goldenrod Aphids (Uroleucon nigrotuberculatum). They only live on goldenrod apparently and don’t harm the plant. They provide food for ladybirds and other insects so I’m leaving them where I found them just on the edge of the woods by the bridge where they seemed to be dancing in unison on the leaves. … Continue reading
Canada Day Fireflies
We came home around 10:15pm after watching fireworks at the yacht club and Evie suggested we look for fireflies in the long grass at the back of the field. We saw them immediately! A whole host of twinkling lights in the grass and at the edge of the woods — the best display we’ve seen … Continue reading
June bugs
The June bugs are out in our part of Nova Scotia. Seems we’ve had an early spring this year. I haven’t kept track of the June bug dates with the same dedication as the spring peepers, but here’s what I’ve been able to find in the archives. 2013 – May 23 -(missing a few)- 2016 … Continue reading
Robin raises a second brood
We came home from a two-week trip to the southwestern USA on July 16 to find mama robin back on her nest incubating a second batch of eggs. Three eggs this time: Two had hatched by July 20 and we haven’t spotted a third baby. Possibly it never hatched: We spotted this huge moth on … Continue reading
June round-up
A few highlights from the month. First, some dates: June 12 – the first chick hatched June 13 – first firefly of the year spotted in the yard around 9:45pm. June 16 – found a little sparrow nest in the clematis June 21 – Milo spotted a snapping turtle on the rocks behind a local … Continue reading
Spanworm moth
The June bugs have hatched and the moths can’t be far behind. I spotted this one on the steep hill in the woods behind the house yesterday. I think he was drying his wings in the warmth of the afternoon. It’s not a very pretty name. But he’s a handsome moth with a little smiley … Continue reading
January 2017
Winter has been way too greenish brownish so far. January was more or less snow free which felt weird and wrong — we had a fairly big dump at the beginning of the month (Jan 8/9, see the photos above) and then nothing. Just mild drizzly weather for weeks. The photo of the flock of … Continue reading
witches whiskers 