Bogieblog

Bumble Bees are a Humming

I have a friend in NY (not in city) that was bemoaning that bumblebees are disappearing and she doesn't have any in her gardens. She has way more garden space, variety and blooms than I have, but this year is a stellar bee year for me (last two years, not so much). The two large rhodies are humming all day with bees everywhere, and have been that way for a week or more. I can hear them from 10' away. I had just got done mowing Monday afternoon so didn't have my readers on. I just haphazardly started taking pictures hoping I got something in them.

Even though the baptisia isn't in full bloom yet, and the flowers not really open enough for a big-azz bumblebee to get in there, this bee decided there were advantages to foraging alone.

Although I know that honey bees have had their difficulties for the last several years, in my experience (which may or may not be typical), bees and other insects ("good" insects or not) go in cycles. Some years are plentiful and others scarce. Hopefully in my friend's case, next year will be a year that she has lots of the pollinators again.

Even though the baptisia isn't in full bloom yet, and the flowers not really open enough for a big-azz bumblebee to get in there, this bee decided there were advantages to eating alone.

Chipmunk Stash and a Sun Set

Yesterday I was moving pellets from the garage into the basement. About the 3rd layer down, I found this chipmunk stash

No, the chippie isn't living in the garage - it lives under the front porch. There were two days in November when it was 60* and I had the overhead door raised to warm the garage back up.

Yesterday evening, at 4:40 (by the time stamps on my photos) I went out the back door to bring in the bird feeder and saw some really nice colors. Order of pictures: East, northeast, north (no retouching of phone photos)

I figured the sunset to the west must be gorgeous, so checked it out - sure it was pretty, but the other sides were prettier. However, I could appreciate the contrast of the pastels versus the blue and yellows on this side.

The south side was also pretty

At 6:48, I went into the kitchen and there was a red glow coming the bay window shade (south side), so once again went out the back door to check it out. These stunning colors are unretouched from the phone camera (although cropped to remove the view of the excavator that has been sitting there for months)

What a nice change from the unending cloudiness we have experienced this month.

Pictures from 11/05/2022

Last Saturday was nice and I did some outside work. One of those jobs was to touch up caulk on the back side of the house. I bought the brown caulk several months ago, and just got around to doing the job. I didn't necessarily think the brown would be the "right" brown to match the siding, but I was not expecting this.

So now there is a bunch of plum colored stripes in various places back there [shaking head]

I went out to water the pot of mums in the roadside garden and noticed a couple of things: 1st, that the Japanese maple had dumped all its leaves overnight (literally). Second, the Coppertina Ninebark, although mostly leafless, had a bit of color hanging on.

 

The colder mornings have the squirrels building winter nests. The first is in the northeast corner and the second is on the east side. I'm surprised there aren't more as there are 4, sometimes 5, squirrels that are regularly in my yard.

Spot and Rainey (L to R) were exhausted from watching birds, squirrels and bugs

And, if you look really close, you can see a faint reflection of Rita sitting in the window - an ear is to either side of the post of the cat tree and her back is behind the dangly ball.

Bear Damage

Wednesday morning I was getting ready to let Rita out, and took a look around the backyard first as I always do. I take a look because there is a fox around, and I have seen coyote. The fox could definitely get into the pen if it wanted to, and perhaps the coyote too (I don't think so, but you never know). The neighbor's cat come in sometimes. Rita isn't interested in finding a way to escape so I just worry about something getting in. Well, this is what I saw

Hey, at least he left the feeder - and it was still in good shape. I know it didn't have very much in it as the squirrels are pretty thorough and compete heavily with the birds. All the bear had to do was turn the feeder upside down and it would have spilled the handful or two of seeds and nuts. Seriously, the only damage to the feeder was existing from the squirrels chewing thru the heavy plastic pipe at one of the feeding ports (thru the mesh wire around it).

Needless to say, Rita did not get to go out. After I got off work, I removed the fence panel, the very one that got crunched when the willow tree top came down. I tried to straighten the panel out again (remember, it had been smashed previously), but the bottom pole had been bent into a V so when I stood it up, the only part that touched the ground was the point. Even after "straightening", the top now has two kinks, one on either side of the center brace, so it wouldn't be stable. That green pole is a heavy duty T-bar that I didn't have a hope of straightening.

I neglected to take a picture, but the bear also bent the heck out of the cast iron feeder pole to get the feeder off.

I went to the local Agway and asked for a kennel expansion panel, and would they please deliver. However, checking all their 6 stores, there were no expansion panels to be found, only 1 or two kennel sets (10 x 10 x 6). Apparently those are in short supply and they couldn't even get any thru their connections. ARRGGHH.  Friday I contacted a fencing company to get a bar to replace the bootm piece. Once I got it all pt back together, I made it work, but this can't be the permanent solution this time.

It's not pretty, in fact downright ugly, but I can let Rita out anyway. It is barely stable because it is still horribly out of wack and doesn't track along the straight line of the timber it is supposed to rest on.I'm pretty sure that the first snow dump off the roof would wipe it out.

It's times like these I wish I had a real truck. I can find a used panel on CL but getting it here from 40 miles away is a challenge without a vehicle that has the capacity to carry it. And if I have to rent a vehicle to carry it - well, let's just say I might as well buy the entire kennel from Agway between the mileage and gas I would have to pay for.

Last of Fall Planting

Turtle heads in the shade garden are blooming - bees love them

 

Planted a couple of Rose of Sharon's in my new garden area by the swamp.

And I got a different type of turtle head  that I planted in this section

I wasn't really pleased with the way the rock wall came out, but found a way to make it much better (in my opinion) by adding cap stones.

The small plants between the two Rose of Sharons are Japanese Anemones, Curtain Call Pink (it is tough to see the RoS's as they blend into the greenery of the shade garden). I also added some crocus bulbs that have been in the fridge since last fall. It seems the chipmunks/squirrels have already been digging those up. I could find some re-planted somewhere else :)

My place got a 1/2" of rain on Wednesday, but no more rain is in site at least for the next week so watering this area will be my night job.

Blooms for the First Week of June

All I've got for this week are a couple of flower pictures.

This was taken the first day of this month and tries to highlight the Purple Sensation Allium. These are supposed to get 3' tall, so I planted them in back of the roadside garden. Unfortunately, they are presenting short this year (2'). Doesn't help that one of the peonies (at left of pic) has decided to reach for the skies even though it is only supposed to be 2' tall, means they can't really be seen from the road. Maybe once the allium has another year or two, it will get taller. I know that maple will get taller, so the foliage will be out of the way.

The iris blooms are pretty sporadic - each of these were the only ones of their color to even be interested in blooming (aka, have buds). Maybe they are just ahead of their class and the others will catch up. Pics taken 6/4/20

Variegated weigala disappointed me at first. Took this picture on 6/5/20 and the blooms were almost totally white.

Only one day later, 6/6/20, and look at the difference

And last, but certainly not leas, The focus of this picture was the squirrel that thought it was a bird. Only while posting it in FB did I realize that it also showcased a vivid red geranium (given to me by the gal that picked up the old fence posts), and salvia in one of the planters on the back porch railing. Then, it was pointed out to me that in the background is also a nice shot of my shaded sitting area.

That's it for this week folks - hope the picture brightened your day!

Snapping Turtle Adventure

The town has been digging up and replacing sewer and water lines along Rt 149 (200 feet from my house). This has been going on for several weeks, but apparently Tuesday they disturbed this guy/gal. I had let Rita out and she was intent on a spot behind the middle section of fence. When I looked, my first thought was "how in the heck did that large, flat rock suddenly appear in my backyard?". Since it was resting and mud covered, you'll have to forgive my mistaken identity. Once I realized it was a large turtle, my next thought was to grab my phone and take pictures.

The turtle rested for about 10 minutes in the shade

Then continued his journey (toward the swamp)

 

He did burrow in below that evergreen shrub and rest for a while more

A while later I looked out and saw he was heading toard the clothes line

 

Close up while still approaching clothes line

He got past the clothes line and entered the shade garden, where I quit watching figuring he was done for the evening.

I don't know where he ended up as I haven't seen him since. For all I know he has set up shop in the shade garden under the crabapple tree since that is very dense so I couldn't tell if a large pig or dog were in there. I'm guessing he found the swamp.

Bugged

While outside yesterday, I noticed a very large wasp sitting on the edge of the 4 wheel dump cart (the first pic taken by my pohone, the second by my camera which I had to go get)

Turns out that is a Giant Ichneumon Wasp. This particular one is a female and her body was about 2" long with the ovipositor a little longer. I never found a statement on Google that anyone had ever been stung - although supposedly they are capable if they feel threatened. This one was very docile as I got in close to get a good picture using the micro function of my camera. The reason I even noticed the wasp was because I was moving the cart back and forth, using it as a step stool (good thing I wasn't at work OSHA would have had a heart attack). The wasp never even moved or even seemed agitated. She may have been newly pupated and drying her wings (even though she moved them a bit, they never seemed to fully unfold, so may have still been damp).

The adults don't eat but the female lays an egg in the burrow of a wood wasp larva and the Gian Ichneumon larva uses that as its meal all winter long. There are several large, old and decaying tree stumps about 15 feet from where I found her, so maybe that will be her final destination. That mean looking ovipositor is used to drill into the wood for the egg laying and they listen for specific sounds the wood wasp larva makes in order to find the perfect place to drill. It is incredible to think that they can determine the type of larva in the tree just by listening! After the GI larva pupates, the adult emerges between June and September.

Although not rare, they live in woody areas from Canada down to Mexico, I don't remember seeing one before, so I'm guessing they aren't "common", as one usually thinks of the word.

 

Squirrels and a Bird

To keep the squirrels off the bird feeders, I have been getting big blocks of seed and placing them close to the tree line out back. This has produced interesting behaviour by the critters. Namely, that the gray squirrels, who normally don't tolerate reds being close (and vice-versa), are peacably eating side by side.

And, a bird chose to alight on the fence as I was taking pics of the squirrels.

And, a manipulated pic of said bird

Chestnuts - Not Roasting Though

A squirrel left these on the outdoor furniture table. Apparently he got his fill and left them. Have no idea where they came from, but certainly not from any of the yards around mine, so he hauled them for a bit of a distance before feasting.

Yes, they are very prickly, so that was one tough squirrel. Took me a bit of sleuthing to find out that they are Chinese Chestnuts (most likely - could be American, but very doubtful)