Welcome to JUNE!

🎾 Tuesday was a busy one. There were three tennis games to follow. Part of me felt guilty sitting there, so we made sure to get up, do something, and get back to the games. It is better for my foot, and in this heat! We puttered, while nursing various ailments. Ain't aging is grand! 

💉We've boosters booked for COVID! 

We had good news that we will have one last Summer Gramma Camp in July! The girls are growing, and they have friends to hang out with. They are traveling to New Zealand for 3 weeks in the summer, as well. Hopefully, all will work out and they can meet up with Jean!

We finished watching a series, Injustice. It was a powerful thriller, with twists and turns. We sit, watch, and swat at indoor mosquitoes! 

🐣While I knew there were eggs in the bluebird nest box, I think there must be another pair of House Wrens in the green nest box. I saw a little head peeking out. Then, flying to the flagpole. 

One robin fledged Tuesday morning, another between then and Wednesday, while the third made a Hail Mary Pass and took off. I believe we had three fledge. Here are the last photos I have of them.

We are done! I want to rearrange the furniture on the deck. However, the phoebes... Here is the cowbird dominating the nest. The wee phoebes are days younger. Cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds' nests.

The cowbird has fledged, leaving the baby phoebes to thrive. Here it was on Tuesday. Wednesday morning, when I donned gear at 6 a.m. to fetch trailcam cards, I peeked and it was gone. 

We like to see the garter snakes. They are harmless, eat rodents, and keep insect populations at bay. This was a lovely specimen. I heard is shushing through the leaves and noticed.

The fence is looking good. I like that it is black, and except where the light bounces off of it, you can still see the plants. My lilies are growing tall. I have to pace myself in the heat, and judicious use of bug spray.

I let the cats out for a brief run every morning, usually for under an hour. The other day I asked Cinnamon if he wanted walkies. "Do I?" He's been lobbying for it for awhile. He pooched out on me at the meadow.  The bugs are really bad, and hungry cats end up on the front deck to flee the mosquitos. 

I ended up at the frog pond, and the tadpoles are huge! Cinnamon was back up on the deck, waiting for breakfast.

tadpoles from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cinnamon treed Butch, this was last week. Cinnamon is pretty docile, and I imagine he was curious, and Butch wisely fled up the tree. 

Butch & Cinnamon from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

The only critter on the trailcam, triggered by the wind blowing the bracken, was the American crow. It was a fruitless trek down to the camera, otherwise.

I hope the heat wave passes. 

🔥 🚒 May has been a month of fires across Canada. Alberta (546), Saskatchewan (192), Manitoba, Northern Ontario, Quebec (101 fires), Nova Scotia (CBC article, Tantallon Fire, Barrington Lake fire). 

We are going to hope for better in June. 

Phoebe, robins and ONStorm

 🐣 Critters

🐣PHOEBE –  Phoebes have hatched May 28th. It looks like all 5 of them! They should fledge June 11th. 

The first 🐣ROBIN was here as of Feb. 1st, in the snow and cold! They've nested and hatched: May 14. The robins fledged on Sunday, May 29, having hatched exactly 13 days ago. No eggs remained, I assume they hatched 3/3 eggs. 

I anxiously await the Wood Ducks hatching. I did a quick check on them. May 29. 

🍃 Invasive Spongy Moths🐛 <= my data!

We had a helicopter go over the nearby lake. It is always a bit creepy since I associate them with emergencies. I asked on Facebook, and they are spraying BTK on the caterpillars. I hope all our butterflies and caterpillars are safe here. They were up about an hour. Our LDD Spongy Moth caterpillars have mostly died off. After a couple of years they get hit by a naturally occuring virus.

helicopter from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Public notices describe BTK as harmless to people, and non-toxic to insects, birds, fish, mammals, and adult moths and butterflies. However, this is misleading. BTK is not species-specific and, if consumed, will result in mortality of any butterfly or moth larvae at the time it is sprayed. BTK has been sprayed in several extremely rare Ontario habitats, such as oak savannah, oak woodland and tall grass prairie — which means it can also negatively affect many rare moths and butterflies that use these habitats.

I was quite happy to be able to sit on our back deck in the 31 C. weather. There were flies, but no mosquitoes or blackflies. I've been using Skin-so-soft when I go out to do the lawn. That certainly helps.  My left arm is covered in several blackfly bites, oozing little hives. Unlike mosquitoes, they land and immediately dig in. You just don't feel them.

There are ~5600 households with Ottawa Hydro still without power lo these 10 days. Some homes need to have individual repairs, as their neighbours are up, but they have household damage. What a mess it is. Ontario Hydro has about 7100 left to get reattached.

Blackflies, fallen tree, LDD

The blackflies and mosquitoes continue... my arms are a mess. You'll read why. I have blistery boils on both my arms. 

I happened to have taken a photo of this tree in March, down in the wetland. It was quite holey!

Lo, and behold, it finally fell over. I fought the bugs, and hauled it out of the way. We've blackflies, as well as mosquitoes. They are wicked biters. I should have gone back to the house for long sleeves. You don't notice them landing, unlike mosquitoes.

Happily, it did not take out the two lady slippers that are in bloom just beyond (in the sunny spot on the left, below).

Have you ever frozen a milk bag? We had extra milk last time when the girls were here. We put it in the milk container and I noticed it was leaking Thursday. Plan B: the blender. Thing was I had to put it out overnight, as it didn't fit into our fridge. It was still there in the morning. This is the morning. We had frost overnight.

Yes, FROST. I thought to bring the cherry tomatoes, but didn't think to cover the squash. They are a wilted mess.

The goldfish are good. They've been joined by two leopard frogs, who seem fine in the sun.

The monarchs have arrived! I saw my first on Saturday. I was examining this milkweed plant. I'm wondering if I should just remove this plant, as it is right on the sidewalk, and will get smucked eventually!

I looked at said milkweed, and realized there was a Lymantria dispar dispar (LDD) moth caterpillars, otherwise known as European gypsy moth caterpillars, on it. ("Gypsy" is politically incorrect, as it is considered a pejorative term. Gypsies, known as Romani or Roma, were called such, as Europeans thought they came from Egypt.)

Some of them have made it to 15 mm, and a couple more intars to go until they reach 38 – 50 mm. They have reached the stage where they have the red dots, and are clearly identified as LDD. (Not that I had any doubt! They are 'flying' all around and under the trees on their gossamer thread. 

They are on the elm trees in the meadow, we'll see how that goes.