Wildlife and Habitat: Summer Field Notes

wild saskatoons are having a good year. bushes along the forest margins have the most fruit.

nearby our orchard and the bee hives at our place, out walked a bear this morning. first time I've seen one in the area.

ghost pipe .. following up on the plants I came across a couple weeks ago. the transition to brown on the leaf margins are interesting, the new ones are pure white

planting apple trees, the hardware cloth keeps out deer, rabbits and voles. I've planted without it and rolled the dice, but eventuality wildlife is just drawn to them like candy. same with wild plum, in a forest of chokecherry a deer will find the one plum tree and eat all of the small growth. so I use these or tree tubes.

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. apples, ussurian pear, acorns.

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, there's a very sensitive relationship with the fungi in the soil. #nativeplants #ghostpipe

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 insects to the birds that eat them, adding new plants to the landscape supports more biodiversity, it's a big web, etc. maybe these caterpillars are around anyway, but it's the first time I've noticed one in the nursery. will be keeping an eye on the milkweed we planted.

tree frogs seem to like the greenhouse

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 and now the vines are reasonably safe to grow

work in progress some apple orchard rows in a field.. the trees are alive just trimmed by deer and competing with grass. following photos are siberian crabapple nearby planted in 2004. Project planned to cage the small trees, cut grass and mulch.

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 decaying wood or bark. It's a phenomenon known since ancient times and is caused by a chemical reaction involving a luciferase enzyme and a luciferin"

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 the low spot, on a very wet year this is full of water for a while

amur maple, acer ginnala

out for a hike in a jurassic park of ferns.. didn't see any velociraptors

cool butterfly

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 gone between dropping and squirrels

wild bergamot #wildbergamot

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 understory, the ones in the sun get more nuts.

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 setting them back - so finally added caging.

wild chamomile, pineappleweed, Matricaria discoidea . growing in an unmowed driveway, one tough plant that likes compacted soil and neglect. smells like chamomile

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 into a 5 ft bush

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 your garden. https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/currant-blister-aphid

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 happy #wildlifepond

wild bergamot in a native prairie restoration garden at the Assiniboine Food Forest in Brandon MB. @assiniboinefoodforest #foodforest #wildflowers

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 to twenty years. #donkey

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 oink at you. For a year or two her best friend was a chicken. #potbellypig

#monarchcaterpillar

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 find every single sour cherry bush amongst a forest of background trees

#walkingtrail at #ridingmountainnationalpark in southern Manitoba

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

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 brave. Also my dog is getting older, doesn’t jump up to bark so easily. A single deer over several nights ate down the tops of hundreds of small trees, usually just defoliating the top 2/3, but also the top half of currants, wild roses, garlic and one head of lettuce. It had a run at my grafted apples, a third of them have been topped - sure hope they will bounce back this season. Most will grow back, but it’s enough to push me to fence the nursery and orchard, something I wasn’t expecting to do. #deerfence #deerproof #deerproofgardening

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 the deer’s favourite snacks.

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 out. if it was November this would be easier to solve..

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 deer resistant.

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 hazel and get them more squirrel proof. #nuttrees #growingtrees

Our forest floor is coated in poplar fluff. #aspen #populustremuloides #nature #forest

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

out for a walk with Pepsi #forestdog

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

some wildflowers in the orchard #wildflowers

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

red osier dogwood flowering this week #dogwood

ferns still waking up #fern #frond

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

ants farming aphids .. or maybe they’re pets? #ants #aphids #symbiosis