Fall-ing in Love Again

American Lady with Blue Mistflowers and Rudbeckia

I am so happy that Fall is here. I'm not talking about pumpkin spice or sweater weather. I love fall because this is when the wildflowers are at their peak and the butterflies arrive in force. The bees and wasps will have been busy all summer, but the butterflies like to wait until the flowers are at their tastiest and most beautiful. It's my favorite time to lead kids on hikes at the Nature Center. We see so much! Spiders, caterpillars, butterflies, stick bugs, mantises. Fall is full of life. I learned to love fall wildflowers when we lived in Florida and I worked at Morningside Nature Center. I got to know the flowers of the Longleaf Pine Sandhill there, which is one of the most beautiful things ever. Click here to read my blog about it: https://earthteachme.blogspot.com/2013/09/morningside.html I started my flower garden at home to attract butterflies when I saw how they loved the wildflowers in the sandhill. The flower show in our garden starts small in the spring with welcome but small sprouts of green and flashes of yellow and pink. But by fall it is a mad burst of purple and gold, tall stems tumbling over each other. I could barely walk the path through the middle of the garden today because it had grown so thick. But the result is a moving carpet of rainbow colors, buzzing, fluttering, and chirping. The birds, rabbits, squirrels and deer love it too. 

Katydid

Fall is the time that I get to step back and just admire and enjoy the fruits of my labors. It's my reward for the sweaty work planting, watering and weeding that I do in the spring and summer, though admittedly, nature does most of the work. It's a joy to just step out the front door and be surrounded by such beauty. I take far too many pictures. It makes me happy to see other people pass by the yard and stop for a picture of their own. A runner yesterday waved and said "¡Que Rico!" and blew kisses to the flowers. It makes me feel good to provide a nature sanctuary on a busy corner where campus buses drive by every few minutes and commuters line up at the beginning and end of their day. I love this garden.

On the Bus Route--Goldenrod and Asters Abound

American Lady, Blue Mistflower, and the Commuters

Fall is also hurricane season. It's been a wild week. On Thursday we watched the destruction in Florida as hurricane Helene grew to a category 4 storm.We anxiously waited for it to roar over the top of Athens during the night. I took pictures of the garden on Thursday, fully expecting that it would all be smashed flat by the storm the next day. But Friday morning we woke to light rain and some wind gusts and found that we had come through mercifully unscathed. The storm had taken a more easterly path. But then we saw the terrible damage as it tore through up the eastern half of the state and up to the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky. There was some damage in our town, but nothing like what happened all around us. We feel very lucky--the devastation and loss is shocking. Some of those communities will never be the same again. Our garden was untouched.

The Day Before the Storm 

Then on Sunday we started getting reports of a toxic chemical fire in Conyers, about 40 miles to the west, and to be prepared to stay inside with windows closed if the chemical cloud started to drift our way. Luckily the fire seems to be under control and the cloud has not made it here yet, though it looks like the toxicity would be diluted by the wind by the time it got here if it did. But 17,000 people were told to evacuate, many to Athens. Crazy. What's next? An asteroid? Volcano?

Not smelling any chlorine because the toxic cloud was far away, I took a walk around Lake Herrick, where I used to walk all the time and in January had started writing about for an exercise in exploring place. I've been avoiding going there--it just makes me sad since the nursing student was murdered there in February (see previous blogs). I hadn't been there since June. I decided to go see if I could find any of the birds that had been reported after the hurricane (I didn't). It was nice to walk the trails again, but it still felt sad. This summer the university installed numerous emergency call boxes throughout the woods as a safety measure. I understand why they put them in, but for me, seeing the bright red light in the woods just reminds me that it is a sad place. I'm just not sure I can write about my connection to the place any more. I get distracted by the misery. So I am letting that "Journey in Place" project go. I'll certainly go back to Lake Herrick over and over again. But reflecting on my feelings there is too sad, and I feel like having the project hanging over me has been a burden that kept me from being able to write at all. I've been stuck. But walking home from Lake Herrick, I saw my garden up ahead in the distance, all full of movement and life, and I felt relief, and the urge to write about it. Just the nudge I needed. Thank you, garden, for giving me joy, beauty, and peace.

Pearl Crescent on Rudbeckia

Cabbage White on Blue Mistflower

Yellow Collared Scape Moth on Blue Mistflower

Fiery Skipper on Blue Mistflower

Buckeye on Blue Mistflower

American Snout on Blue Mistflower

Ocola Skipper on Blue Mistflower

Swamp Sunflower

Leafcutter Bee on Blue Mistflower

Ailanthus Webworm Moth on Blue Mistflower

Georgia Aster

First Monarch of Fall

The Long Hot Summer (Yeehaw!)

Every July about this time I find myself thankful for the heat of summer. Steam and heat aside, this is a great time to be in the yard. Our wildlife garden is almost at full peak, producing flowers and leafy shelter that attract the pollinators and the rest of the food web that I garden to provide habitat for. The swamp sunflowers in the front yard have grown tall, giving a quiet place for a baby deer to sleep while mom is out looking for food. The bushy Muhly grass, Mountain Mint and Black-eyed Susans are a refuge for fireflies that emerge in the evening. Tiny spiderlings set up their webs, hidden in the thickening greenery, where they hunt for prey that increases in size as they do. Caterpillars silently munch on plant parts, leaving specks of frass and chewed up leaves in their wake. Thrashers and Towhees scurry through the flower beds, grabbing caterpillars and spiders as they forage for spilled seed from the feeders. Mature vines and tube-shaped flowers are food for the hummingbirds. By July, at least one brood of newbies are out foraging for themselves. They visit the sugar water feeders, but they also spend a lot of time sucking out of flowers, especially the ones with long stems that they can sit on and rest between hovering and being chased off by older birds. Hovering is tiring.

This time of year, my glasses and camera lenses that are cool from the indoor A/C fog up immediately upon stepping out of the house or from a cool car. I can wipe the glasses, but have to wait for the camera to warm up because merely wiping the external glass is not enough. The camera will keep fogging up until the temperature has equalized. I've learned to keep my camera case in the back of the car, away from the A/C when I'm driving somewhere to take photos. I also take the camera out of its case right away when I get outside so it can start warming up, and sometimes face the glass into the sun to quick-start the process. 

Today I went out into the back yard just as it started to get hot, around 10am. The plan was to photograph some bees. My camera was cold, so I needed to give it time to acclimate, and so I walked over to one of the Black-eyed Susan patches in the yard to see what insects might be flying around. Before I knew it, an hour had passed and I had taken dozens of photos just with my phone. It's quickly becoming my go-to camera. They say that the best camera is the one you have with you. This one takes decent enough photos, and doesn't fog up! I never did pull out the other camera.

But the reason I spent an hour in the flower patch was that there was so much going on just on this single species of flower that I couldn't stop searching for more. As the morning warmed and the sun moved higher and brighter, the insects became more active, and new ones showed up. Butterflies, for example, were late arrivals. It was great fun and I had forgotten from last year just how much I love spending time crawling around in the flowers. I couldn't help but think that if there is this much life in a small flower patch, just imagine a prairie or a forest or a jungle. And this was just what I could see with my naked eye. So exciting--hello summer! 

Here are some images from my morning in the Rudbeckia as I waited for my other camera to thaw. 

Ant

Caterpillar

Sleepy Scoliid Wasp

Sleepy Leaf-cutter Bee

Leafhopper

Tiny Wasps

Planthopper Nymph

Some sort of Nectar Feeding Fly

Lacewing Egg (circled)

Ladybeetle

Carpenter-mimic Leafcutter Bee

Assassin Bug

Crab Spider

Stink Bug Nymphs

Red Cocklebur Weevil. They feed  "primarily on Asteraceae species, including sunflowers, ragweed, thistle, cocklebur, joe-pye weed, ironweed, and rosinweed"

Green Lynx Spider

Honey Bee

Not sure!

Small Leaf Cutter Bee

Fiery Skipper

Leaving the Nest

Adult and Juvenile Brown Thrashers--"I know the food is right under my feet, but I'm HUNGRY!!! Feed me!"

For the past couple of weeks I have observed a steady increase in the amount of bird food necessary to keep our bird feeders full. We're going through 20 pound bags of seed in no time at all. Suet blocks disappear seemingly overnight (and it's not due to squirrels!). A batch of hummingbird nectar a few weeks ago would last for weeks, but now I need to make more every few days. There is a quadruple batch cooling on the counter as I type. So what's causing this feeding frenzy? As it turns out, we have a yard full of fledglings and juvenile birds that are still learning to take care of themselves and they are really hungry! When the baby birds first hatch they are helpless and featherless and their parents bring food to them in the nest. But when they grow some feathers and fledge from the nest, the parents hide them in the bushes and trees and bring food to them. Soon the adults bring them to the food and feed them while teaching them skills like how to forage for themselves and how to watch for predators. And eventually, the juveniles are on their own. The young birds and their parents know that our feeders are a quick and easy source of nourishment. In a perfect world, there would be plenty of naturally occurring seed, fruit, nectar and insects for the birds to eat. But as human activity such as building and pesticide use decreases the available natural habitats and food sources, backyard feeders and wildlife gardens provide an important supplement during this vulnerable period in their lives. The young birds need to eat as much as they can so they are strong enough to survive the cold winter and, in many cases, such as with the hummingbirds, migrate. The adults need to fatten up for winter, as well, while also gathering enough to feed their young. It all adds up to a lot of bird food.

Adult and juvenile American Goldfinches

You can't help but smile when you watch the young birds. They're kind of goofy looking and easy to spot. They are often unsteady flyers with scruffy, incomplete feather growth, big, bright (often light colored) eyes, and wide, sometimes yellow mouths, fluttering their wings and noisily calling for their parents feed them. They keep up the flapping and begging well after they know better. Many times I'll watch young birds that are completely able to fly and forage for themselves, flap and beg to no one in particular as they eat alone.

Fledgling Brown Thrasher--Young, scruffy and pretty helpless

Slightly older Brown Thrasher Juvenile, awkwardly teetering on the perch

Juvenile Red-bellied Woodpecker that hasn't quite grown its pretty red head feathers

Juvenile Northern Cardinal begging to be fed

Same Cardinal 30 seconds later--"oh yeah, I guess I get it"

This Juvenile Eastern Bluebird is easy to peg as a youngster, with its big eyes, wide yellow mouth and dotted chest feathers

It's a rough world out there. The young hummingbirds are constantly chased away from the feeder by the older and dominant birds, and later by their siblings. Sometimes I wonder how they can ever eat enough to supply all the calories they burn just in the chasing. Juvenile jays and towhees are chased out of the flat feeder by the pushy grackles and mourning doves. Wary Carolina wren and catbird parents make loud alarm calls to warn the young when predators (like me) are in the vicinity, but fluffs of feathers from the mockingbirds or cardinals that didn't see the hawk are a reminder that this adulting stuff is hard. But chances are good that the hawk is a juvenile working on its skills, too.

A Juvenile Barred Owl tried to fly away from me as I walked by, but screeched so much that I couldn't help but see it!

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk being buzzed by angry Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. The hawk was just perching when they got started to attack.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds preparing a feeding truce. They're probably hungry after chasing each other around the yard.

Juvenile Blue Jay hides in the bushes after being chased off of the feeder by Mourning Doves

At this time of year, from the vantage of my yard that is literally across the street from the university, I can't help but make the comparison between the birds I am observing at home and the students next door who are preparing to embark on the college journey. Move-in day took place this past weekend and the street was buzzing with the new arrivals and their parents as they unloaded clothes, computers, lamps, bikes and other "necessities" from their cars and trailers. When the parents drove away, leaving their youngster to make their way, I'm sure they felt some anxiety, hoping their young adults would be ok. I remember those feelings, well, and I have family and friends who will be experiencing this soon. My hearts go out to you all, but it will be ok! This morning I watched groups of giddy young people walking to the bus stop, maps in hand, as they figured out their new surroundings. Like the young birds, the young students are easy to pick out and fun to watch. They are a little loud, a little unsure, eager to impress their friends, but so full of excitement and energy. They also have a big job ahead of them. Like the birds, they need to figure out how to take care of themselves in their new semi-independent life. They need to learn how to feed themselves but they also have to figure out how to budget their finances and time, find their classes, pick a major, make friends, learn where everything is, figure out the rules (yes, you DO need to stop for pedestrians at the flashing crosswalks), study, and hopefully come away from it all with a path to a good career. As with the birds, the students face dangers--driving, drinking, sexual assault, and stress, to name just a few. But they have been preparing to be independent adults their whole lives and with luck the lessons they have been given along the way will have sunk in when the crucial time comes.

Yes, it is time for the next batch of young ones to leave the nest and enter the world. Here's to a successful and happy year.

Juvenile Eastern Bluebird, just a little more experienced

Juvenile Northern Mockingbird--"I can do this!"

Young Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird resting on the Fennel after a busy day