Out My Window

As many of you know I have been under the weather lately, so I have not been to the meadow, or elsewhere on campus.  But I have some photos from out my window or near my patio.

Who ever heard of a white-headed woodpecker?  Well this is a red-bellied woodpecker, either a young one or a molting adult, and if you look closely you can see where the red on the head will be.

I found this monarch caterpillar on my milkweed, and I hope that there was enough time before the rain for it to turn into a chrysalis, otherwise I think it may not have survived the inch and a half of rain.

The goldfinch have found the seeds of the coneflower.

And the bees are all over these yellow flowers.  Here is a honey bee.

And a bumble bee.

And my gosh what is that!  I went on bug guide and it was identified as a European hornet.  Then I went on line and read what Penn State had to say about European hornets.  The bottom line is we don't want to mess with these guys, and if you find a nest, get a professional exterminator to deal with it.

The Local Buzz

This is what was buzzing at Foulkeways last night.

On the way into dinner there was a sharing table with local produce which we could take home.

And people were taking advantage of it, notice the empty spot for bags for you goodies.

Inside there was a bee display.

And all the good foods we wouldn't have if we didn't have bees.

The menu gave us information on what we were going to eat, and lots of information about where all this food came from, for example the honey was our own Foulkeways honey.

The flowers perfectly complimented the food.

Here is the salad serving table.

Melons!

Peaches for  desert, or blueberry peach crisp with whipped cream.

There was honey on the table, which was a perfect compliment to the rolls.  And no more photos, as we were too busy eating this wonderful special dinner.

Bringing Nature Inside

On this hot and humid day, two members of the Grounds Committee took the residents of Gwynedd and Abington House on an indoor "nature walk".

Items from all over our campus were collected, labelled, and put on paper plates.  The residents then sat around the table and the plates were passed around. and lively conversation ensued. 

We talked about trees feeding squirrels and other animals with their buts.

We admired some of nature's most elegant flowers.

Do you know residents still collect crab apples for jelly?

Goldenrod has just started to bloom.

Red Bud bloomed in the Spring and now has seed pods.

Queen Anne's Lace is found everywhere.  

Black-eyed Susan takes you back to your childhood.

And a look-alike, but this thin-leaved coneflower can grow to four feet.

Nothing Blooming

When I came back from vacation several people said there is nothing blooming in the meadow.  So this afternoon I walked down to see.

The front meadow is beginning to be covered with boltonia.

The pearl crescent have found the boltonia.

And the bees have found it.

And even a song sparrow.

The back meadow is covered with wild senna.

A bumble bee found the senna.

The back of the "wetland" has a lot of partridge pea.

There is also New York ironweed blooming.

Queen Anne's lace.

I even spotted this band-winged meadowhawk.
To really see the meadow you have to walk in it.

Butterfly Walk at Gwynedd Preserve

This morning Jane Ruffin led a butterfly walk at the Natural Lands trust preserve at Gwynedd.

An early sighting was of this grey hairstreak.

The butterflies were few and far between, which seems to be the pattern for this year.  Probably due to the bad winter?  Here is a least skipper on a leaf, and we saw some Monarchs and orange sulphurs flying.

In the garden in front of the headquarters was this lovely female black swallowtail.

Also an eastern tiger swallowtail.

Not a very good photo, but nice to see two together.

This least skipper was delighted to sip some perspiration from Jane's shirt at the end of the walk.  But at least the weather was better than on Wednesday.  And I think everyone enjoyed the walk and Jane's expertise on butterflies.

First Monarch

Today I spotted my first Monarch by the side of the path.

Then she flew off and landed on the common milkweed in the meadow.  She flew off again, maybe to your garden, so look for tiny caterpillars on your milkweed. 

Bees and Bugs

On Friday our beekeeper came to inspect the hives.

The main job was to do a sugar shake to check for mites.  You just need to take out a half cup of bees,

which are added to this jar with the sugar.  The bees are coated with the sugar, and then the sugar is tapped out into the pan to see if there are any mites in the sugar.  Unfortunately there were enough mites to warrant a treatment, which will be done this week.

The sugar-coated bees are returned to the hive, where the others welcome them as a treat.

This is a cicada, which tells you it is a very hot day, with its constant "song".

There have been red admirals laying eggs on the nettles which grow on the edge of the wetland.

Do not know what this insect is, but that pointed appendage looks lethal.

Was aiming to take this red wasp on the dill, and to my surprise there were three other little insects in the photo.