Sunday 13 June 2021

Phoebes, robins, and LDD caterpillars

The bugs are out. We've mosquitoes, blackflies and... Now, it's deerflies! These I took these with my macro lens. I'd lost a lot of my photos, and couldn't figure out why my computer was slow to load, and lacked memory. They were stored somewhere. My SIL, an encryption engineer, figured it out for me! He's a good one!

These are the last photos of the phoebes! 


One egg remained, so we hatched 4, and one cowbird!

I took the girls outside to look at the phoebe babies Friday, after their lunch, and they EXPLODED from the nest! It was great fun. Isabelle is becoming quite the philosopher, "Oh, well," she commented as we returned to the house, "at least we held them last year!" There were phoebes all over the yard! 

The robins are still in the nest. The adults watch us all carefully.

The girls are home, now, but we had fun and watched America's Got Talent one night. These two, Les Beaux Frères from Montréal, were the highlight! They've worked with Cirque du Soleil.

Les Beaux Frères

I ordered two Women in Science t-shirts. Josephine's fit, a women's medium, but Izzy's was a youth medium (whoopsie), and I asked Jos to ask Caitlin (M.Sc.) to give it away somewhere! They are avid and eager scientists, all!

After our COLD swim Monday after school, they hung their suits and towels in the basement. This is major progress! Funnily enough, Isabelle went downstairs to the freezer to get her morning waffles, and thought to bring the bathing suits up to pack, so they don't forget them. 

Jos crossed off our weekly menu.

We had a quiet day, they packed, and off they went. 

Our sumac has been interesting. The previous owners plowed out the field, here, and knowing that trees are all connected (new research), they are dying out. The wild grape vines are climbing up it, however. It's something.

You can see that I've done some work to keep the You Two doe out of my garden. They've eaten a couple of hostas (2nd photo below), and 5 lilies. Maybe the flags will help!

 The only problem with setting up a perimeter, is seeing the 8 blooms on my peony plant! It's a different paeonia, I'm not sure what kind. It could be a peony 'Yellow Crown'.

One of the original Intersectional peonies, raised by Professor Itoh in Japan. Sadly he did not see the result of his labours. 

There were two, beside the house, but with climate change it was too hot for them. I moved one, the other died, but this bloomed first in 2019, after the move.


The 🍃LDD Invasive Moths🐛 are growing, still. They are up to 35 mm. 

The mosquitoes continue to be merciless in the forest. I wear my red hoodie, and spray my back and cuffs. That helps. They aren't so bad in the yard in the sunshine.

Trailcams have been spotty, this young buck circled around our backyard for me. The bugs are terrible, they cover him.

buck from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The fishies are doing well. The big one is...well, big!

The little dweeb. I was trying to get her indoors. It was futile. We are worried about the robins fledging. I tried to sneak up behind her, and I know she heard me. Her ears went back, then she rolled over to keep an eye on me.
JB tried, too, with treats. She was on to us.  She ended up coming after lunch. Today, they are confined to barracks.

The monarchs have been by to check out the milkweed. A good sign. Some of the milkweed had frostbite. These, near the steps, are OK.

To leave you on a sweet note, teeny wild strawberries!

13 comments:

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

Beautiful photos of the girls and thanks for the info about rat snakes. I found a fox snake at the farm and was quite excited; I've only seen grass snakes here. Yes the mosquitoes are awful this year. How wonderful the girls get to spend time on such a property as yours getting to learn so much about nature and yah to budding scientists!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Wild strawberries are the best!!! Your garden looks pretty with its new perimeter - regardless of how functional it proves to be &*> YAM xx

Tom said...

...it's good to see that you are helping to raise women of science!

Rain said...

Hi Jenn :)) Oh wild strawberries! We had some last year pop up around our driveway but so far this year I haven't seen them. We do have wild blueberries though, I guess they spread from the blueberry fields across the road! Your peonies are beautiful. The flower you showed is just gorgeous. I'd love to plant some one of these days. Oh the deer flies...I got two bites already, they itch like hell. Great macro shots though!

Rain said...

Oh and yes...good for the girls for being into science!!!

Anvilcloud said...

The garden border looks very festive.

Nancy J said...

T Shirts, lovely, birds and babies, deer that roam, flags to keep them out, and another week begins. When does school start again? This way might be the new norm for some time, our Doctor told us, when we were asking about the Covid Vaccine, that " It's here to stay" , scary and sobering. We have to make an appt to get our shots, there is a waiting time, my flu shot is this week, eye next week, so in 4 weeks will get my first jab. I cannot understand the NO shots people, they not only endanger their own but everyone else's lives.

Jenn Jilks said...

School goes until June 25th, Jean, so one more week from June 21 - 25, and school is done. Then, we can play! School begins again Sept. 7th, as I recall. I think they are determined to go to actual school, we'll see how it goes. Our COVID number are lowering, so that is good.

William Kendall said...

Cats can be stubborn.

Red said...

I'll take the strawberries. I love them.

The Furry Gnome said...

Your Milkweeds are way ahead of ours!

eileeninmd said...

Hello,

The science t-shirt is great, Love the Phoebe on the nest. I can not get the milkweed to grow here, it is wonderful you have seen the Monarch butterfly already. The strawberries look yummy. Take care, have a happy day and a great week!

Kay said...

I can't believe how tiny those eggs are. I wish we could have monarchs back in Hawaii. I rarely see those butterflies anymore. There used to be tons of them everywhere. No more. I'm beginning to see the occasional swallowtail which I never saw before when I was growing up.