The beauty of this hairy caterpillar is quite astounding. Unfortunately, in this case beauty belies the true nature of this animal. This is a gypsy moth caterpillar, and these pests have been ravaging the white oaks in my yard for many years now. Eventually they may become just too much for the trees. Huge areas […]
Archive for the ‘Fauna’ Category
Beauty of the beast
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Meet the original potato beetle
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The three lined potato beetle (Lema trilineata) has been pushed out of the limelight by the colorado potato beetle, wich moved eastward from the Rockies in the 1850s. The larvae of these species do quite the job on cultivated potato, tomato and eggplant foliage. I grow none of those in my garden, and none of […]
Beach Blanket Spider
Posted in Fauna, Guest blogger, Interesting on July 3, 2011 | 1 Comment »
It’s hard to believe I haven’t posted anything since 5/25, I guess spending as much time as possible outside this season has been keeping me busy. A couple recent incidents have given me the need to once again become the amateur naturalist sleuth and seek out solutions to buggy business. As you may know, I […]
fruit isn’t just for fall
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on June 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Plants don’t waste time. Why wait until tomorrow if today will do… Once a plant’s done blooming, they’ll put energy into the fruits and seeds. Some of the spring bloomers are ripening the fruit on the stem, to make them attractive to birds, or they are ready to drop the seed to the garden floor […]
Random June garden collage
Posted in Fauna on June 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
We inherited the garden with a lot of established plantings, which go extremely well with the native plants I have added. These flowers and plants are quite beautiful and colorful in their own right, and deserve at least a visual presence on the cape cod woodland blog. It does not make sense to be a […]
Cape Catbirds
Posted in Fauna, Guest blogger, Interesting on May 25, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Living here on Cape Cod has enabled me to observe several types of wild birds such as woodpeckers, flickers and hummingbirds for the first time in my life. I am also reading “The Bird” by Colin Tudge so I guess you could say I have something of a mild obsession with birds right now. I love the […]
A moment in a bug’s life
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I don’t know much about wasps, and had to do some research to find out I was dealing with a paper wasp. The one in the picture is the European paper wasp (Polistes dominulus), and it is trying to make a home on my dwelling. This wasp is not something the cape old timers would […]
Where the bugs are
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Guest blogger, Interesting on May 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been a cold spring. Last spring it was so hot that our Rhododendrons never bloomed (a friend told me the unopened blooms essentially fried in the sun). This spring there’s not quite enough sun; the leaves on the oak trees are still in winter mode, taking their time coming out of their protective buds. The insects must be […]
On Black Garden Ants, and other assorted critters
Posted in Fauna, Guest blogger, Interesting on April 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In the wild kingdom that my kitchen has become with the onset of warm weather, I have come across more black ants than I seem to remember from last year, along with all kinds of spiders. The other day I caught a harvestman hitching a ride on my shoulder. Then I opened a cabinet to get […]
Noisy New Neighbors
Posted in Fauna, Guest blogger, Interesting on April 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Today I was walking down Route 6A when I heard what I thought were some loud birds. Getting closer to the sound I started to imagine that it was actually heavy machinery – this time of year there is a lot of repair work done on people’s summer homes in Barnstable. It turned out the […]