August 19, 2024

Yes, yet another week in August has passed us by.  The students at Albion College have arrived and are looking forward to their classes and friendships.  Welcome back, everyone!  It was actually LAST week when I went out to visit my friend and expert horticulturist, Kathleen Seidl, at her gorgeous garden.  She manages to keep her beautiful plants alive and weeded over the years and is a great inspiration.  Picture 4 shows a kind of Shamrock that comes in purple AND white.

What a lot of beautiful days we've had this week (if you discount days like yesterday which were mostly wet and rainy).  I'm still waiting for my Goldenrod to bloom out loud.  It has been promising to do just that for more than a week.  I know it is just a finger-click away - look at this picture of a Pennsylvania Ambush Bug, which showed up in the BACK yard about a week ago.  Usually we see these ON the Goldenrod the first day of full bloom, but this year they must have made a pact to ignore each other.  

THIS is the goldenrod as seen this week.  It will be SOON, I promise.  No kidding.  As soon as the Goldenrod blooms it will be covered with insects and spiders that we wait all year to see!   Let me mention that many people believe the Goldenrod is the source of the allergic symptoms we suffer with at this time of year, but my allergist insists that it is more likely to be caused by something like the Ragweed, which is also making pollen now.

But the Asters, Blue and Pink, are doing their thing now.  It seems that the deep bluish Bees prefer the Blue Asters, while the green Bees (especially the ones with striped abdomens, love the Pink Asters.

Picture 1 here is the first shot of an Asiatic Dayflower this year so far.  I had never noticed these blooming here in the States until my daughter Abra Bertman casually mentioned that we had seen them all over in Hefei, Anhui, China, where we were living in the '80s!  If this year is like last year, we'll see this blooming till Autumn.  Picture 2 shows an August Orange daylily blooming next to a Japanese Anemone flower.  Third is the yellow Hibiscus that has been so beautiful for a month or more now.

The flowers of Summer are so shockingly colorful!   Let's look at some of the smaller creatures now.  First, some Ants.  Figure 1 shows an Eastern Black Carpenter Ant.  Second is a Tennessee Collared Ant, as identified by @mettcollsuss of iNaturalist.org.  I was surprised to have a Tennessee Ant show up here, but on the map you will see that it is at least as plentiful here as there.  Third is an unidentified very small Ant.  

Since the Barklice are back, at least tangentially, let's see what's out there these days.  This first one seems to be in genus Polypsocus, shot on a dark region of the Wall. Second seems to be one of the Metylophorus genus.  The third looks like the very common Graphopsocus cruciatus, which a lot of people call an F-wing Barklouse.

There are so many Flies, I'd like to display a bunch of them here - they take on so many forms, there are some that you might not want to call a Fly at first!  Let's take a quick look at some of them!  This first one is a Picture-winged Fly.  Any ideas where that name came from?  :-)  Next seems to be some kind of Fly - it has the usual shape!  The third is a Fly, sure enough, although it looks like some kind of Moth!  It's called the Bathroom Moth Fly.  

First up here is a pair of mating Robber Flies.  They're followed by two orange  (probably Tiger) Crane Flies, also mating.  And finally, a mating pair of more ordinary-looking Flies.  Those Flies really love love!

These next two are called Scorpion Flies, but they are not Flies!  The first one is a male - he twists the end of his abdomen into a coil somewhat like that of a Scorpion.  Number two here is a female.  There are so many species under this genus that it is very hard to get a positive ID but they ARE Scorpion Flies.

Here's another real fly, the Gray Goggle-eye Fly.  The second may be a Stilt-legged Bug and not a Fly.  Let me check.   It may be a member of genus Dactylomyia, one of the long-legged Flies. The third is a kind of Mosquito, I think.  This summer has been full of Mosquitoes.            

What else?  You probably now believe that most insects are Flies, and I do believe something like that may be true.  Let me see if I can't find some other non-Fly insects.  Let's start with the "lovable ones", like the Butterflies and Moths.  Here is a Gray Hairstreak, three views.

Here are another few little Butterflies.  We frequently see the Zabulon Skippers (first two pictures) and sometimes the Peck's Skipper (picture 3).

My Friend Dottie Kammer sent me this Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.  I don't see many of these large Butterflies, so I was delighted to see this one.  In the same letter, she sent pictures of a very cute Fawn.  I asked her if the Fawn was garden-friendly - for instance, did it eat, for example, the Hellebores (which are supposed to be immune from the trepidations of Deer)?  She intimated that it was in a learning stage, and would soon not mess with the flowers.  Fortunately, although Deer come within a few blocks of my house, they haven't leapt the fence yet.

We've spent some time together now and have seen most of the interesting points of the backyard.  One thing we haven't seen in a few days is Froggy, the one faithful Green Frog, who hasn't showed up for a few days.  I'll end up this blog with some pictures from the Pond, just so you can see how lovely the inhabitants are.   

Here are some of the little Tree Frogs that have sprouted up on the north side of the house.  Third is our Froggy sitting on a Water Lily flower last week.

One other thing that is happening now is that this little Fraternal Wasp (below, left) has taken to visiting (and fertilizing) the Coral Berries, which are only tiny balls at this time (middle and last picture).  This happens each summer at this time.  

So now my friends, we are about at the end of another week.  Hope to see you back here next week.  Take good care of yourselves and this lovely earth!  Love, Martha