Goings on about the yard

Bee on Butterfly Milkweed

Bee carrying grass to bee house

Bee placing grass in bee house

Common Mountain Mint (small white flowers) flourishing in bed by house (and in wild bed on hillside)

Purple Coneflower, native Bee Balm, Butterfly Milkweed and New England Aster finally getting a foothold in wild bed on hillside

Robin on nest in Wisteria

American Goldfinches finally eating from thistle feeder.

I used to have several pairs that fed from the feeder all year round.  I moved the feeder several years ago so I could have a better view from the house.  They were not happy and left the yard.  

After many moves, I must have found a spot they like.

Buck on his almost daily stroll through the back yard.

This morning he decided to nibble on my roses.  That would not do.  I stepped outside to scold him.  He listened politely for a minute then proceeded on his way across the yard.

The last full moon was called a Buck Moon.

Soggy Summer

It rained twice as much as normal in June - 4 inches fell on June 28.  

That's a lot of water.

The first section of my neighbor's dock does not float.  That was fine last year.

On June 29 that first section washed away.

He told me the hull on his boat has damage from collision with large logs that floated downstream.

With all the rain and wind the dead Ash is loosing large limbs.  

This one must have weighed 100 pounds.  I put in a work order to our lawn service, but did not have much hope of them coming out soon.  

A few days ago I came home to find our neighbor had sawed it into 1 1/2 foot sections.  He helped me carry it all to the wood pile.   

He also keeps the thistle and other weeds out of his yard; best neighbor ever.

There was a pile of logs and sticks - and a few 2 x 4's - along the lowest level of the lawn.   The water level must have risen over the seawall.

That has never happened since we moved here in 1993.

Ruta

Today was the first time I monitored since my good friend Ruta passed away.

The Metroparks has agreed to allow her family to bury her ashes in Oak Openings and we took time to locate an appropriate place in Campbell Prairie.

Ruta loved Campbell Prairie and was not happy when told she was not allowed to monitor there without special permission after Karner Blue butterflies were introduced several years ago.  She would confide to me that she would sneak in from time to time without permission.  

Ruta will be in good company.  

The Metroparks has given permission only once before for ashes to be buried in the parks - and that was for Lou Campbell and his wife.

We used Ruta's handwritten maps to locate the Canada Frostweed.  

The maps are scanned onto our iPad, which we have used for the last several years.  Ruta was not fond of the iPad, preferring to jot down counts and associated species on scraps of paper she stuffed into her pockets.  

She would have found it amusing that our documentation app was not working today and we kept our notes - once again - on paper.

The Karner Blue population has been struggling and we didn't see any today.  The meadow was aflutter with hundreds of Great Spangled Fritillaries, though.