Eastern Black Swallowtail

Photo by CWR reprinted with permission

Today is Memorial Day 2020. The weather in Maine has been extremely dry with Temps ranging from near 90F Friday May 22 to a low of 30F the morning on the 24th.

Insects are still doing their thing-the above photo of a tentatively identified Eastern Black Swallowtail feeding on dandelion was taken yesterday.

The Willow tree along the drive, which I pollarded hard at ten feet, has sprouted a lot of new growth which has become the focus of the Blue black Willow beetle, an invasive species.  I suspect the infestation is in part what devastated the original tree, along with a soaking of herbicide by a wayward roadside maintenance man half dozen years ago.

The quasi-style Hugel beds I use for vegetables are also apparently insect friendly.  I have some medium sized black ants making a large colony in one and two separate species of bumblebees have also found them ideal for nesting.

The latter has created an inconvenience, since I had plans for that part of the bed which was not yet planted. Ditto with the Eastern Phoebes nesting under the north eaves.  I desperately need to do some serious roof work on that part of the house, and the current stretch of dry weather would have been ideal.  (If I had known it was coming, of course)

The plan is to do that work in July-  after the fledglings have left the nest and before the parents start a second brood.

The squirrels are gradually expanding their territory and return from down the ridge every late afternoon.  Hopefully when the serious hot weather hits they will find the roof too hot to their liking and move out.

Momma duck was spotted again a few days ago-with at least half dozen ducklings.  She is tentatively identified as a mallard, but I thought I caught a flash of blue which would make her a wood duck.  The wood ducks had been seen in that location for enough time for a brood to hatch, with the mallards latecomers.  I am hoping they are wood ducks since that would be a nod to my ego, as wood ducks nest in tree cavities and appropriate nesting sites can be hard to come by.

Nothing has been heard from the loons.  We have always had at least two nesting pair and I am concerned something or someone has caused them to disappear.

No sign yet of the Great Blue Heron, either, but sometimes that does not appear until later in the season.

The Willow created a Netflix by mail account, and we have watched several movies.  I think my favorite so far was the remake of Jumanji.  I laughed out loud on several occasions and one scene had me on the edge of my seat.  Very entertaining. We both send a nod to Jack Black for his performance as well as the other actors and actresses.

Stay safe~

Sciurus carolinensis

Tree

Here's a pic of our homegirl.  Not exactly the pic I wanted to capture, as she usually is facing directly at the window.  This is taken through a double glazed window with the cloud covered sun behind her.

Yes, her, she is a nursing female and the boss of the local squirrel scurry.

The winter of 2018-2019 was a tough one for squirrels.  It was an off year for mast-the oaks dropped no acorns, and the same for the beech.  I got tired of the squirrels hogging all the bird feeders, so I started supplementing small piles of cracked corn spaced out along the hill path to the goats.

There was at least a dozen squirrels that came on a daily basis, usually showing up around 10:30 am  We even had a color mutation we named "Goldie" she had an absence of black coloration and was tawny and white.

My neighbors were not happy with the desperate squirrels-both known to shoot anything that encroaches on their rural properties, and I beeged both groups to "spare Goldie" if they went on a rampage.

I have not seen "Goldie" for over a year, whether she fell victim to a bullet or a bird of prey is unknown.  There is also the possibility that she saw no need to leave her territory last winter,(she was always one of the late arrivals the previous winter) as it was a crackerjack year for both acorns and beechnuts.

I know because I picked up several gallons off the goat path and left them by the back door, playing with the idea of turning them into acorn meal and attempting acorn pancakes.  It is quite a process of soaking, cracking, and shelling and drying and grinding, and I never got around to it.

The few squirrels that showed up in the back yard this winter thought that was the best acorn stash ever and ate most of the bucket.

I wish they had scrounged a little more through the asparagus and perennial beds out back since it took several days of raking and handpicking  MORE acorns unless I wanted to be pulling oak seedlings later in the year.  The ground was literally carpeted with them.

I had intended to use those leaves for garden mulch, but due to the massive amount of acorns I dumped them along the property line at the edge of the woodland.

One year I played with the idea of selling red oak seedlings, and potted up quite a few of them.  I gave some away and kept a few for a potential bonsai project.

We will have to see if acorn production is impacted by weather or is cyclical.  I have heard the term "off year" for fruiting trees-whether that is just the habit of the tree to fruit every other year, or if it depends on the type of weather during flowering season I am unsure.

One thing I am pretty sure on- we won't have a ton of maple keys, or seeds later.  We had that huge wet snow just as the red flower buds were swelling, and it has been cold and wet most of the month-not good conditions for pollination.

I have my beehives set as a swarm trap, but we have yet to see any honeybees.  One sure way I determine how local colonies overwintered is when the pussywillow buds mature, as honeybees cherish that as a pollen source and the small trees are low enough to the ground to inspect visually.

We have seen on or two tri colored bumblebees (Bombus ternarius) already this spring, and I expect to see the first hummingbirds any day.