The squirrels really appreciate that I put out dried ears of corn, but they go through one ear in a day. I added an obstacle, so they have to work harder for the corn by tying knots in a 1/2” hemp rope and adding a screw eye. The corn is twisted onto the screw and hangs in the middle of the rope.
The squirrels have figured out how to get one kernel at a time off, but prefer the birdseed. We have a four squirrel family, so maybe one will figure this out while the others are gorging on seed.
The squirrel would like me to know that the corn cob is empty and she may need to speak to someone in management if I don’t remedy the situation.
A grass spider setup camp in our window, between the glass and the screen. It must have been catching enough to survive because it grew, and as it grew built several tunnel webs, which gave us a neat view of the structure.
We did free the spider and clean the window after taking pictures. I wasn’t sure big enough prey could now get caught in its web.
I learned something new when I snapped a picture of a lady bug resting on a Gregg’s mist flower leaf and uploaded it to iNaturalist. The name of my friendly neighborhood native is the Convergent Lady Beetle, because of the “two short white lines on the black pronotum (shoulderlike section behind the head) that converge toward each other.” (Mdc.mo.gov) The markings are harder to see in my picture, but these are the most common of the 500 lady beetle species in the US.
The Gregg’s mist flower is doing its job of attracting pollinators and helpful insects. Our front garden bed is full of the mist flowers and Common Yellow Wood Sorrel, which are also native and edible. The yellow and purple are nice together, and the density of their leaves is blocking out other unwanted growth, which means less weeding for me!
I haven’t checked the trail cam in a couple months, and when I did there were only 39 pictures. Several of those 39, though, were of a Doe and her fawn.
I wasn’t sure at first if the smaller one was a fawn, or if the picture had some perspective magic happening, since there are not visible spots on the fawn. A quick internet image search brings up other night vision photos of fawns where the spots don’t show up. Interesting.
Critters and Craft 