As I picked up the morning paper at the end of our driveway, I turned to look at a deer that had been killed by a car, when two eyes met mine from atop the carcass. A full grown Bobcat, about the size of a Labrador Retriever, sat crouched on the deer, motionless, waiting for […]
I slowly removed the nail that holds the door to the Bluebird house tightly closed. We haven’t had a nesting pair of Bluebirds yet and I was excited at the possibility of one being in there now. I carefully opened the door and there she is, looking right back at me — a gray and […]
It’s the end of the summer and fall is not far away. Yet, our garden is as busy as ever with a wide variety of insects, arachnids and other welcome guests. Pollinators are in abundance, going from flower to flower, trying to get as much pollen as they can hold or cover themselves with. Our […]
We were looking at our raised vegetable beds last summer and noticed our large tomatoes were being eaten by an unknown pest. Big chunks had been bitten out of the green tomatoes with no evidence of who the culprit was. My wife then says, “That’s not a stem attached to the tomato.” She’s right. “What […]
“Look, there’s a bird.” It’s usually more like, “Look, there’s a Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker or Bluebird.” Even us “backyard birders” specifically identify the bird being observed, don’t we? It’s like a fisherman saying, “Hey, I caught a fish.” You get my point. I’ve been doing this for years with certain creatures. Wasps, flies and […]
Snapping Turtles aren’t known to lay their eggs alongside other turtles of their kind as Green, Loggerhead and other types of sea turtles do. But, in the past week, three different Snapping Turtles laid their eggs in our patio. As my initial Snapping Turtle blog states, we have had a nest in our yard for […]
It’s early spring and I’m pushing a wheel barrel full of dead leaves and stems collected from a garden bed to dump into the woods. I discard the refuge, and as I turn around and glance down there it is — a single Red Trillium in full bloom among old withered weeds. It looks tropical, […]
Small patches of white, yellow, blue and violet flowers bloom throughout the year. Pickerel Frogs and Spring Peepers hop out of my way as small butterflies and bees float slowly front plant to plant. This is some of the wildlife I see as I’m walking across our lawn. It’s mid-April and still cold here in […]
Missing perennials, winter kill on shrubs or an unexpected new arrival in one of our flower beds — these are examples of our spring garden surprises. The winters in Western Connecticut can be harsh on perennials and shrubs. It’s the first week of April, and more snow is predicted in the coming week. Plants that […]
It’s the second week of March, and the Great Blue Herons are beginning to appear in the wetlands behind our house. The first arrivals have begun landing atop a few dead White Oak and Sugar Maple trees searching for just the right place to build this year’s nest. The Great Blue Herons’ squawk is a […]