Backyard wildlife......more but different!

Many people have relatively well-manicured, even relatively sterile lawns. Not us! The less grass to cut, the better, and so a lot of it has been put into trees and gardens. The latter may be of the veggie type or the ornamental flower type or even the wildflower/tallgrass prairie type. It is amazing what one can get into a small space!

And that leads to a wonderful diversity of fauna making use of it. Some of the interesting critters you may have already seen on previous blog posts. But there is often something new popping into view.

The Echinacea in particular attracts a wide diversity of insects. Bees are buzzing around like crazy, as are various fly type pollinators that look like bees.

On the dill, we see the larvae of Black Swallowtail.

Black Swallowtail larva

This guy is still pretty tiny....it has a lot of growing to do before it becomes an adult.

Black Swallowtail adult

I came across another immature katydid recently. This appears to be another of the Fork-tailed Bush Katydid type. It spent some of its time on this Echinacea, but was on its way to a nearby tomato plant.

Fork-tailed Bush Katydid female

One morning, tucked up under some raspberry bushes, was this magnificent moth. It is a Pandorus Sphinx, one of the largest moths of the area. It feeds on wild grape among other things. It looks very fresh, so it may have just emerged from its cocoon in the previous few hours, and was spending the day drying its wings and waiting for nightfall to begin the next chapter in its life.

Pandorus Sphinx

Much smaller than this sphinx moth is a planthopper, looking very much like a small leaf with legs on the move. It isn't much larger than your thumb, and usually gets around by walking on the vegetation, but it can both leap and fly at least for short distances.

Acanalonia conica

On the underside of some cucumber leaves were these tiny Lace bugs, just a few millimetres in body length. They get their name because upon a closer look, part of their body has a delicate lace-like pattern. The adult is on the left and the much smaller nymph is on the right and lower down.

Lace bugs

Attached to a stem that had been cast into a future compost pile was this empty case of a Cicada. There are several kinds of cicada in this range....I am not sure exactly what species this one is. Maybe now I will hear the adult singing/buzzing away in the tree tops on a warm day.

Cicada sp nymphal case

Not a true insect, but a member of the Arachnidae family, are spiders. They aren't the favourite critter to warm up to, but they do catch lots of insects! This Garden Cross Spider had its web stretched across some plants, and had already captured several small insects.

Garden Cross Spider

This Orchard Orb Weaver had its web stretched between a couple of milkweed plants, and likewise had had several feeds of insects that became entrapped. It really is an attractive critter when you get up close to it. Go ahead....take a closer look!

Orchard Orb Weaver

Because we use a lot of composted material in our garden, fungi appear from time to time. The parts that we typically see are just the fruiting bodies of the much larger organism below ground. There, the 'roots' of the fungi (called mycorrhizae) are busily devouring dead plant material. The fruiting body above ground lasts just long enough to have the spores disperse, to enable more of them to find a suitable substrate to live on. This one is, I believe, a type of Coprinus or Inky Cap. Many of them are much larger.....this one's cap is only about 1.3 cm in diameter.

Inky Cap

At the opposite end of the size spectrum, we have our resident bunnies......you will be hearing more about their exploits in life and death in a future post.

American Robins have several broods over the season. I think our local ones are on their third brood already. This recently fledged youngster was hanging out along the pathway through our prairie/forest patch.

 It then hopped up to the fence, and seemed to be interested in the nearby house wren nest box. I'm not sure what was going through its mind!

Just below this spot, a fledged young Song Sparrow was resting, waiting for one of its parents to come by with food.

Song Sparrow fledgling

And above the house late today, this adult Mourning Dove had it own 'aerial view' of the property......perhaps it was getting ready to view the super moon tonight.....or not.

No, we don't have cable or satellite tv.....we only graduated from bunny ears a couple of years ago, but with this set of rooftop aerial, we can get all the channels we 'need'. We can spend more time in the garden or elsewhere observing nature, and we provide a good resting place for birds.....what would they use if we had cable or satellite :-).

Backyard wildlife

Sometimes you don't have to go very far to shoot and enjoy all sorts of wildlife. And on the warmer summer days, since I don't tolerate the heat and humidity all that well, it is nice to have access to A/C in the house. So brief forays into the back yard can provide some fascinating wildlife, and numerous macro photography opportunities.

Of course it helps to have a diversity of wildflowers, shrubs and trees.....something I've been working on for more than a few years. And Marie has a great diversity of more functional (a.k.a edible) garden plants to add to the attraction for wildlife.

Milkweed and Purple Coneflower are perfect for attracting butterflies and many other insects.

Monarch

Black Swallowtail

Red Admiral

Silver-spotted Skipper

Tawny Emperor

This Tawny Emperor was actually one that visited our garden in 2013.....I'm still looking for my first one for this year!

One critter that may look like a butterfly is actually a day-flying moth, the Eight-spotted Forester. It is very distinctive.

Eight-spotted Forester

Another few moths which one seldom sees, but are likely around, are the underwing group. This Dark Red Underwing was actually on a neighbour's house.

Dark Red Underwing

This pose does not show the deep red and black patterned underwing, but if it is startled, it will flash its wings and the colour and pattern will be quite obvious.

This next moth is small but very distinctive. It is not native; the larvae depend on non-native species such as Tree-of-Heaven, an aggressive fast-growing tree that is often found in abandoned lots and other disturbed sites. We don't have any Tree-of-Heaven in our immediate area that I know of. The adults feed on the nectar of flowers, which they do find here.

Ailanthus moth

There are lots of other pollinators around, and may be different ones each day or week.

Bumblebee sp

There are quite a few different kinds of bumblebees, and even some members of the fly family that look a lot like a bumblebee.

This next photo is of a Long-legged Fly....it is very small, as the size of the fly compared to the leaf venation indicates.

 

 This next image is of a type of Blowfly, probably of the Lucilia genus. Its iridescent green colour and the many black hairs make it quite attractive up close.

 The next image is of a type of fruit fly also known as a Sunflower Maggot Fly. The term maggot has an undesirable connotation.....but I think this tiny delicate fly is quite attractive.

Beetles are common amongst these wildflowers. This first one is a Margined Carrion Beetle. It gets the term 'margined' for the pinkish margin around the head.

Margined Carrion Beetle

Long-horned Beetle

Red Milkweed Beetle

A tiny insect I always look forward to finding is this Red-banded Leafhopper. Being only about 5-6 mm long, it isn't going to get your attention from a distance, but up close, it is a real crowd-pleaser!

Red-banded Leafhopper

Milkweeds attract aphids, among other things.

Occasionally a dragonfly will stop by. They are always on the lookout for insects, their main diet. This is a female Common Whitetail.

Common Whitetail

A very undesirable insect to have around, especially if you have veggies such as squash or zucchini growing, is the Squash Bug. Their eggs are easy to find under the leaves of the plants.

Squash Bug eggs

A recent surprise to find in our yard was this member of the katydid family. It is a young one, with its wings not fully developed. It was crawling around a milkweed plant as well as a Red Cedar. In looking at the tail plate from another photo I took, it appears to be a Fork-tailed Bush Katydid. For some sub-groups of katydids, particularly the bush katydids, an examination of the male's tail plate shape is important for identification.

Fork-tailed Bush Katydid

Katydids are members of that interesting group of insects that sing. There are many species across the province and elsewhere. A very useful book was published in 2006, entitled The Songs of Insects by Elliott and Hershberger, complete with fabulous photos and a CD of their songs. As they were publishing it, they came across a couple of images that I had of unusual colour forms of one kind of katydid....a pink colour form and a yellow one, which they asked to publish. I was quite pleased to let them include it in their book.

And finally, at least for this post, I leave you with another more common type of wildlife that many of you have likely seen in your yard.

Eastern Cottontail

There is a family of cottontails that really like to hang out in or near our yard. We don't cut the lawn often, so there is always lots of clover for them to munch on when they want a change in diet from our garden plants. And on more than one occasion, they have found a suitable nesting spot somewhere amongst our yard vegetation. An adult regularly hangs out in the front yard prairie patch on cool fall and winter days, soaking up some sunlight.