What’s In My Backyard? Meet the neighbors: snakeweed grasshopper For the introduction to this series, see here This brightly colored western grasshopper is considered a beneficial insect by ranchers. This might seem surprising as most grasshoppers are considered pests. This grasshopper eats weeds (especially snakeweed) that are poisonous to sheep and cows. In the spring, …
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the neighbors: Spotted Towhee For the introduction to this series, see here You will often see this brightly colored little bird scurrying around under trees and bushes scratching in the leaves on the ground. These birds live in the western United States. If you live in the east, you will …
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the neighbors: Oak Rough Bulletgall Wasp Look at the young oak tree in the photos. All of its branches are covered with strange hard bumps! If you look closely, you may notice small round holes on the bumps. These bumps are called galls and they are the work of the …
What’s In My Backyard?-Oak Rough Bulletgall Wasp Read More »
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Mockingbird For the introduction to this series, see here This robin-sized gray bird lives up to its name. An adult mockingbird may know as many as 200 songs! These birds imitate the songs and calls of many other birds. Mockingbirds like to sing so much that sometimes they …
What’s In My Backyard? Lake Friends: Muskrat For the introduction to this series, see here Meet the muskrat! When is a rat not a rat? When it is a muskrat! These aquatic animals are rodents but they are much more closely related to voles and lemmings than to rats. Muskrats are adapted to life in …
What’s In My Backyard? Projects: Tracking For the introduction to this series, see here It is winter or early spring. The ground is covered with snow or mud and the weather is quite cold. There are no insects or flowers, many birds have migrated to warmer areas and there doesn’t seem like there is much …
Moths and Porch Lights Part Two For the introduction to this series, see here You may remember that we explored attracting insect to porch lights. I shared pictures of some of my interesting visitors. Today I would like to post a little update with pictures of some recent visitors to my back porch light. As …
What’s in My Backyard—Moths and porch lights part two Read More »
Meet the Neighbors: Red Sunflower Seed Weevil For the introduction to this series, see here Meet the Red Sunflower Seed Weevil! These little beetles have long snouts that look like straws. You might imagine that they suck liquid like you do with a straw. In reality, the beetles have chewing mouthparts at the end of …
What’s In My Backyard?- Red Sunflower Seed Weevil Read More »
Meet the Neighbors: American Coot For the introduction to this series, see here American Coots, sometimes called mud hens, will only be your neighbor if you live in the right neighborhood. You need to live by a lake or pond because they never go far from water. These birds are not related to ducks. They …
Meet the Neighbors: White-bowed Smoothwing For the introduction to this series, see here Farmers and gardeners like things that eat aphids. Sometimes they even buy packages of ladybugs or aphid-eating wasps to help control aphids. Many people do not realize that there are many other insects that eat aphids. The white-bowed Smoothwing is one of …
