In 2016 I’m doing a 365 Nature project. Each day of the year I will post something here about nature. It may be any format, a photo, video, audio, sketch or entry from my nature journal. It could be a written piece. Each day I will connect to nature in some way and share it here by the end of that day. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to the RSS feed or be notified by email. See all the 365 Nature posts.
Whenever we have a cloudy day after a string of sunny and warm days, everything seems subdued, and not just the people. This morning was a bit cooler than it had been and although I found insects, they were slow moving and there was very little activity compared to Day 123. Tiny donut-shaped ant nests have started to appear on the paths in the arboretum and I found a few groupings of them. There’s been many plants showing insect damage, but until today I haven’t found the culprits – with the exception of the sawfly larvae that had nearly defoliated a gooseberry on Day 116. While I still can’t find whatever is eating the Indian Plums, I did find whats been eating the leaves of what I think are hazelnut trees. They were tiny, green larvae, you can see the photos above. I also found a bright red wasp, centipede and signs of leaf borers in the Fringecup leaves.
As I walked back through the arboretum I heard one angry crow, but it was in the center of a dense cluster of trees and I couldn’t see what it was protesting. I did see it pecking at branches and ripping bark of the tree. An Anna’s Hummingbird investigated as well.
