Wildlife and Habitat: Summer Field Notes

this caterpillar hiding in the chokecherry branches looks exactly like a chokecherry twig

I found it while picking saskatoons...

nanking cherry just starting to ripen on this shaded bush

it's july 12, and we're in southern MB - the 35C this week should move things along, an other years I've picked ripe nanking right in this range about the middle of the month. the fruit will hang on for about two weeks...

wild saskatoons are having a good year

bushes along the forest margins have...

nearby our orchard and the bee hives at our place, out walked a bear this morning

ghost pipe

following up on the plants I came across a couple weeks ago. the transition to brown on the leaf margins are...

this time of year I'm collecting fruit and nuts before wildlife finds them

don't worry, the deer and squirrels will be fine, lots left for them...

ghost pipe, just found this rare plant growing nearby in the shade by some oaks

not a mushroom, it's a plant - feeds on fungi in the soil instead of having chlorophyll. also from a nursery standpoint, you won't find these available anywhere, they're basically impossible to transplant or propagate...

we have quite a few of these guys around in the evenings, helping with the mosquitos

hanging out on an fruit tree leaf

not eating it, just chilling. quick photo ID says it will be a cool looking moth, the white-marked tussock moth. a big idea in permaculture is that you're introducing, or maybe restoring habitat for wildlife, from...

grapes in a forest context

tried for years without the cage, and the vines would always get trimmed back by wildlife. finally put up some stucco wire cages...

foxfire, glowing fungi in a scoop of old wood chips from the pile

I've only found small ones like this, like nature's glow sticks. #foxfire. "Foxfire is a term referring to the natural bioluminescence, or glowing, produced by certain species of fungi, particularly those growing on...

cottonwood, but a hybrid, based on leaf shape

we have these lots at a nearby lake I keep meaning to plant some trees on, about a quarter of it floods in the spring

so it's marshy, cat tails and nettles mostly. I just need to get some cages sorted, deer hang out here so little fruit trees would be a snack. I keep thinking about doing some mounds near...

out for a hike in a jurassic park of ferns

weird tree frog in the hazel, usually they’re green

american hazel getting close, maybe next week

as soon as the nuts are mature and start to brown I’ll go picking, miss it by a week and they’ll all be...

getting lost in my front yard, walking around a patch of american hazel

there is trail I just need to bring a brush mower and a saw next time. looks like we have some nuts this year. these grow wild as a dense...

caging some canada wild plum along a forest path

these are actually a few years old, and wildlife seems to find and eat them down to the ground reliably, constantly...

wild chamomile, pineappleweed, Matricaria discoidea

growing in an unmowed driveway, one tough plant that likes compacted soil and...

rosa woodsii or woods’ rose is the most cold hardy rose I know of, it’s native to our area and probably undervalued

if given a good location they can grow...

red currant aphids or currant blister aphids make these galls, I removed the leaves as a precaution but otherwise

the bush is quite healthy. I enjoyed this reference that encourages you not to spray insecticides for these relatively harmless guys because aphids are an important part of the food web and it’s ok to have some in...

filled up the pond, it’s been dry and windy and it was maybe six inches low

second time this year I added some water, the fish seemed...

wild bergamot in a native prairie restoration garden at the Assiniboine Food Forest in Brandon MB

@assiniboinefoodforest #foodforest...

out for a walk, donkey always comes over to get pet

His name is donkey, had him and a couple of his friends for close...

our pot belly pig patty from years ago, we had her until she was twelve

she had free run of the yard and had a routine where she would sleep in the afternoon, when to eat etc. In the winter she would make a crazy pig nest in the barn in the straw and you could walk by and the staw pile would...

the day your cat learns there’s a cat bed inside the cupboards #cat #catlife #siamesecat #polydactylcat

nursery tonight, floodlight is on to watch for deer

left a gate open, one deer wandered in last night and ate two ft off every bush cherry

maybe ten bushes spread around an acre along paths in their fourth year. man i almost want to replace them. i have them caged for rabbits, but seems they need a 4 ft cage.. deer can somehow walk around and...

this spider is the same color as the wild rose it was hiding inside

this guy chilling on the sarsaparilla leaves trail side #toad

pond area starting to get overgrown, the goldfish seem happy in their 3rd summer #pond

deer fence in progress

I went with 5 stands of high tensile wire in this open stretch, and 3 stands where it runs through dense undergrowth. Six years of gardening in this space without any deer pressure, but it just takes one to get too...

a second layer of deer defence, these pvc hoops span 2 rows and are covered in bird netting

This worked well to quickly net all of our grafted apples and plums, which are...

nearly have our deer fence finished

700’ x 5 strands of high tensile wire fences in about an acre. Our problem deer gets through the fence in areas it’s not finished every day and we chase it...

like a ninja a deer snuck in and nibble the tops off these potted cherry plums last night

finished a fence today, now we’ll see if it’s...

squirrel found the buffet

as expected I did hide a pile of nuts from him. So they will pull up plants to eat the nuts after germination, good to know. It’s about time build up the some walls for our beds with oak and...

Our forest floor is coated in poplar fluff

#aspen #populustremuloides...

my squirrel is back, might need to reinforce this while I still have some but trees left

a new wildflower bloomed, we added some assorted perennial wildflowers are the orchard, not sure what this one

Cool stump covered in Cladonia chlorophaea lichens, little cup like guys #cladonia #lichen #lichens

red osier dogwood flowering this week #dogwood

trailcam caught a young deer browsing nearby #trailcam #deer #whitetaildeer

ants farming aphids

or maybe they’re pets? #ants...