A friend called us over this afternoon to admire some "interesting" fungi growing in a wood-chip path in her garden. Very well worth the visit (nice to visit and chat anyway) because there was a large collection of fungi of the genus Mutinus. This genus being named after a phallic deity, Mutunus, one [...]
Walking down the road earlier today we spotted - well, in truth, J spotted - two groups of fungi on the mown grass verge. It has rained in biblical amounts these past couple of days so fungi are everywhere. So - the reason for this post is that having (I think) identified [...]
Earlier this year, just in time for spring, I completed an early version of my book 1001 Species: A Natural History of a Small Town and offered it to the public as free PDF download. It enjoyed moderate success in the very small and rather niche market it was offered to and [...]
It's been a busy week, but now it's a quiet Friday with just the bird feeders to replenish here in the garden. Here we see how the time of day changes the things we can see. There is always something to enjoy in a garden. [...]
There are two groups of plants that are always spoken of as "THE" obligatory species to grow in a wildlife garden - Asters and Golden Rod. Very hot and sunny this afternoon in the garden and ten minutes baking in front of a single Golden Rod produced these eight species. There were more [...]
J, my irreplaceable and invaluable spotter of good things, directed me to these two Clouded Sulphur butterflies in the garden who were making merry, or even hay while the sun shines, on the New England Asters. Clearly they were intent on trying to make more butterflies. The rear butterfly is the male and [...]
Ruby-throated Hummingbird approaches the snack-bar
Great Black Digger Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus) J drew this to my attention. Normally I would pass this insect by, having tipped a hat to it as one does, as being just another mud-wasp which we often see beside the garden pond. But ... it was enormous, longer than my standard top-joint-of-the-thumb definition of [...]
Although they are not native plants we have a well behaved group of Japanese Anemones in the garden that I always look forward to flowering. One of the native bumble bees was assiduously working the flowers and had pollen sacks full to bursting.
Obedience (Physostegia virginiana) Back-lit in the morning light. A native flower that gets its name from the fact that you can, apparently, twist and turn the flower stems and they stay where you put them.