Posted on July 9, 2022July 9, 202207/09/2022 afternoon Shackleton asking to go out. It’s too hot for him though. A single bloom of ironweed has opened. An American Snout was interested in the water spray as I watered the potted plants.
Posted on July 3, 2022July 3, 202207/03/2022 daisies Briar had minor surgery last Monday and is recovering well, but still needs her safety donut to not lick her stitches. She continues to enjoy lounging on her patch of buffalograss and squishing the Englemann daisies.
Posted on June 26, 2022June 26, 202206/26/2022 sleepy yard day Partridge pea blooming. A big skipper caught my attention this morning. I think it may be a Confused Cloudywing or an Outis Skipper. The pale ish area below the antennal club is why I think maybe Outis Skipper, but I also get the impression that one is rarer, so I wonder if I’m missing something obvious that makes it a cloudywing. Both have been recorded in Cleveland county, Oklahoma though. Saw a two spotted bumblebee on mealy blue sage again! The juniperleaf cuttings have started to perk up and poke at the plastic wrap, so I am unsealing them a bit to see if they can handle less humidity yet. Silly sleep
Posted on June 23, 2022June 23, 202206/21/2022 Gram guards the rooting juniperleaf. There’s a new pollinator garden on campus!! Very pleased at least one of the partridge pea seeds I sprinkled last year made it up. Paper wasps made a nest on the debris of the invasive clematis. A small lynx spider eats a fly Just noticed that the long true bugs have little flat pom poms on their antennae. A second individual. I think you have to see them from the right angle to get a good view of the antennae spots. Dog A helpful cat saw this wasp (maybe a spider wasp?) In the aloe and knocked the pot over. I took it outside and shooed the friend off. No dinner in the house for it. Only cat. I spotted a plume moth hiding on rain barrel stand. Potatoes in straw bale getting big. Hope roots are too.
Posted on June 22, 2022June 23, 202206/22/2022 Pebblebrook Park Monarda fistulosa American germander Sumac berries Probably bluehearts White prairie clover Greenthread flower with a geometrid moth caterpillar Sensitive briar Annual coreopsis Big red eared slider lady digging a hole for her eggs above the pond.
Posted on June 18, 2022June 18, 202206/18/2022 leash time Shackleton stopped by the rainbow garden today. I always save a little driveway dust for him.
Posted on June 12, 2022June 12, 202206/12/2022 yard Maybe Phacelia? I found at least four leaves full of my amazing tree hopper friends. Each leaf had a different set of adults or immatures. Adults get taken care of too. Babies!!! The leaf bends where the treehopper eggs were. Lace bug Frogfruit east of patio is doing well. Just moved a piece there this spring. Nice true bug Dog flower highly mobile. Monarda future flower bud?? Baptisia and okra Rudbeckia maxima from Abby has a new leaf. A planthopper (Flatidae) on curly dock. First time for this family in the yard?? I used to see them regularly at home. Rattlesnake master still lives. Passionvine (seeds from Bartlesville) doing well in their second year. Tiny bee on butterfly milkweed Hedeoma in with Datura.
Posted on June 12, 2022June 12, 202206/11/2022 The Chef made no bake lemon curd/ cheesecake layered parfaits with homemade whipped cream, farm share blueberries, and homemade granola for a garden tour. Prepared the night before in the fridge. Perfect for the tropically humid day. A wasp carrying a caterpillar Spittlebug Hello Tuqu This young man. Two Texas dandelions from home! White specks are elderberry petals. Bee fly Possibly a baby Grindelia leaf?? A second Coryphantha sulcata seedling came up!!!!! Lace bug (Tineidae) on giant ragweed leaf. Nobody home… …except for this crab spider! My keeled treehoppers have a big family!! Soooo manyyyyyy Shackleton and Briar disagree about social distancing. A nice jumping spider. It’s on a houseplant that is outside for the summer.
Posted on June 12, 2022June 12, 202206/12/2022 a walk in the park Just a bit of prairie here at Ruby Grant Park in NW Norman. Oh wait! A box turtle!! It is good pollinator habitat and good prairie too. I heard one Eastern Meadowlark singing and at least one Dickcissel. A weevil on green milkweed pods. A family of baby milkweed bugs on green milkweed pods. We looked but didn’t find any Monarch butterfly caterpillars. Sideoats grama grass. Abby has suggested this is bottlebrush squirrel tail grass. It has very exciting seedheads! Thanks to Mom and Abby for identifying this as Apocynum cannabinum, or dogbane. There was a lot of it along the trail and we saw the dogbane beetle that eats it too! Possibly prairie acacia? A non native lady beetle on the acacia. Really great stands of Rudbeckia amplexicaulis here!
Posted on June 10, 2022June 10, 202206/07/2022 catching up A Fiery Skipper on lantana on campus. A native fleabane in the front yard. Another Fiery Skipper on the verbena at home. I need to replace this non native moss verbena with prairie verbena but I can’t get it to germinate. 😡 A paper wasp on mealy blue sage. It looks weirdly purple here. Using my new copy of the social wasps book, I narrowed this down to Polistes fuscatus or Polistes bellicosus, based on not much black on legs, black tipped antennae, and the yellow ring around the abdomen. The Hedeoma is flowering!