December 2018
This year hasn't stopped being busy. There is always so much to learn in the world and, for me, time management is a big challenge. I get drawn into the world of doing and I really am a creature of being. I know how essential it is to my happiness to enjoy my surroundings, but it's the things I enjoy most that fall by the wayside when I get overwhelmed with my task list.
Fortunately, there are some chores that fall into the category of enjoying my surroundings. I finally took the leap into proper mason bee care, as the years had seen a large increase in the number of parasites in my bee boxes. I listened to podcasts about the healing power of dreams while I opened ALL the tubes, unrolled them, sorted the cocoons, washed them, and dried them. I now have rigged a special box to keep some of the cocoons in my fridge at the right humidity. As there is not much space in the fridge, I also have several of the cocoons stored in a box in my carport, hopefully out of the way of predators.
There was a happy little surprise tucked into one of the tubes too: a leaf cutter bee nest! I have found those before, while emptying pots of soil, but this is the first time a leaf cutter has used my mason bee tubes. The nest is stored with the outdoor cocoons, though the bees within it are still in the larval stage and won't emerge until well after the mason bees have worked their magic. I'm guessing there are two or three cells within all the leaves and petals of the nest, each with its own baby leafcutter bee. So exciting!
As for the mason bees, some cocoons looked dented and I worried that those might hold parasites instead of a sleeping bee. The internet gave me the idea to candle them. I poured a few cocoons at a time into a glass dish then took them into a dark room and held a flashlight under them. The ones that were empty or had parasitic wasp larvae in them lit up. Others had a distinct bee outline and I definitely saw one bee's leg twitch. Perhaps it was dreaming of bright light and a looming giant. I hustled it back out into the cold so it didn't emerge too soon. It's important for the bees and I to take our rest now, because springtime will be full on.
(Thank you to my son for taking these photos as I washed away all the bee poop and mites that were clinging to the cocoons.)
Fortunately, there are some chores that fall into the category of enjoying my surroundings. I finally took the leap into proper mason bee care, as the years had seen a large increase in the number of parasites in my bee boxes. I listened to podcasts about the healing power of dreams while I opened ALL the tubes, unrolled them, sorted the cocoons, washed them, and dried them. I now have rigged a special box to keep some of the cocoons in my fridge at the right humidity. As there is not much space in the fridge, I also have several of the cocoons stored in a box in my carport, hopefully out of the way of predators.
There was a happy little surprise tucked into one of the tubes too: a leaf cutter bee nest! I have found those before, while emptying pots of soil, but this is the first time a leaf cutter has used my mason bee tubes. The nest is stored with the outdoor cocoons, though the bees within it are still in the larval stage and won't emerge until well after the mason bees have worked their magic. I'm guessing there are two or three cells within all the leaves and petals of the nest, each with its own baby leafcutter bee. So exciting!
As for the mason bees, some cocoons looked dented and I worried that those might hold parasites instead of a sleeping bee. The internet gave me the idea to candle them. I poured a few cocoons at a time into a glass dish then took them into a dark room and held a flashlight under them. The ones that were empty or had parasitic wasp larvae in them lit up. Others had a distinct bee outline and I definitely saw one bee's leg twitch. Perhaps it was dreaming of bright light and a looming giant. I hustled it back out into the cold so it didn't emerge too soon. It's important for the bees and I to take our rest now, because springtime will be full on.
(Thank you to my son for taking these photos as I washed away all the bee poop and mites that were clinging to the cocoons.)
November 7, 2018
The creativity of birds always amazes me. They'll use anything you put out in their environment, even if it's not intended for them. Yesterday I checked on the little house I put out in August for the little stem-nesting bees. I was a little late putting it out, and figured it would still be empty. I thought I'd take it inside and try again earlier next year. However, not all the stems were empty. Upon close inspection, I could see a small sunflower seed cached in one of the holes. Some time this winter, a hungry little chickadee or nuthatch will recall her secret stash. It's wedged in pretty tight, so it'll take some muscle and ingenuity to get it out. I'm sure she's built for the task.
July 14, 2018
This spring I haven't had as much time to wander through the yard and photograph my insect and arachnid friends, but it didn't take long to capture a great diversity of them. The pollinator garden is working its magic; feeding and sheltering everything that wants to live here. (Not the crows, though. They are being chased off by robins and hummingbirds alike, but they do sneak in for an ant bath every once in a while.) We would not have the birds here throughout the year without the abundance of food that is available to them.
Here is a little gallery of the finds in my yard. All of the photos are from this year. I've been helping at another farm, learning how to grow vegetables for market using permaculture techniques. I hope to gain the skills necessary to put all these pollinators to work creating lots of fresh organic produce for my family. It takes a sense of timing (and a lot of work). These are the things people used to grow up learning about in their kitchen gardens. It feels wonderful to reclaim this kind of knowledge.
Here is a little gallery of the finds in my yard. All of the photos are from this year. I've been helping at another farm, learning how to grow vegetables for market using permaculture techniques. I hope to gain the skills necessary to put all these pollinators to work creating lots of fresh organic produce for my family. It takes a sense of timing (and a lot of work). These are the things people used to grow up learning about in their kitchen gardens. It feels wonderful to reclaim this kind of knowledge.
I will be adding captions to this post over the next couple of weeks, but if I don't publish it now, the blog will seem totally abandoned. Enjoy the photos and see if you can guess the names of as many of these little bug folks as possible before I tell you.
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For help with identification, thank you to The Xerces Society for publishing excellent guides such as "Attracting Native Pollinators / Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies." They are an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about working to help our native pollinator populations. Insects need our help now and pollinator stewardship is a wonderful way to connect with the natural world. Please check them out at https://xerces.org
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Sphecodes, a type of cuckoo bee. She will sneak into another bee's nest, destroy the egg, and replace it with one of her own. Her larva, when it hatches, will gobble up the provisions left in the nest by the host bee. Rather than that behaviour making her a "bad bee," it makes her an important part of the checks and balances necessary for biodiversity.
Mar. 1, 2018 Tiritiri Matangi Island
Nearly forty years ago, a team of volunteers and scientists began restoration efforts on this island (near Auckland, New Zealand) that had previously been stripped of trees and used for farmland. They poisoned the rats and other invasive species, then planted native plants and maintained the growing forest. As favourable habitat matured, some of New Zealand's endangered birds were relocated to the place. Many birds found the place on their own. Their populations grew along with the forest.
My aunt, uncle, mother, and I visited the island for a day last November. It was incredible to walk through the cool forest and to see so many bird species for the first time and to discover many of my old favourites thriving there too. Tui imitate all the other birds on the island and confound many avid birdwatchers, who recognize the calls and search excitedly but in vain for their source. Another interesting thing to watch was the rapport between the many volunteers who accompanied tourists to the island on the day trip. They were there as tour guides, or to care for the supplementary nectar feeders, or run the souvenir shop, or transplant little self-seeded plants to areas more likely to support their growth, or any number of tasks associated with the health of creatures and forest. At the end of the day, they gathered near the ferry dock, calling greetings to one another and chatting like family. This sense of common purpose, along with the evidence of group achievement all around them, created a bond that will outlive them all and pass down to the next generation of stewards of Tiritiri Matangi Island. |
Clear photos were tough to capture. My camera kept automatically focusing on the foliage instead of the bird. I don't know my camera's settings well enough to play with them in the middle of all the action, so I tried to be patient and get it to refocus by zooming in and out until it finally picked up the right image clearly. Often by then the bird had moved on. Sometimes I would make myself just look and see the bird without the camera so I could experience the encounter.
I hope to one day go back and spend a day or two on the island, just wandering around and taking my time to sit and see which birds appear when all is still. There are also tuatara there, a unique lizard-like animal that dates back to the time of the dinosaurs. I didn't see them this time. I missed many of Tiritiri's nocturnal creatures. People who stay over can listen to the call of the kiwi at night and enjoy the dawn chorus in the early morning. The forest is sounding more and more like a New Zealand forest would have before contact with Europeans. There are no huia singing or moa running around, but with the efforts of all these volunteers and with a little luck, extinction won't claim any other native birds. This is only one of a few island sanctuaries around New Zealand, and there are more areas on the mainland being protected and cleared of invasive predators. I am concerned about the effects on ecosystems of spreading poisoned baits in order to achieve these predator-free areas, but I also appreciate that other methods used may not be quick or thorough enough to save the birds. Hopefully as bird populations increase, a more eco-friendly alternative will be employed to reclaim habitat. People are planting native trees and plants in their yards and that has helped many of the more gregarious bird species to bounce back. |
Participation in Nature's comeback is one of the most rewarding journeys people can take. It requires learning, planning, work and a little bit of patience. Before we left New Zealand, we planted a swan plant, an important food in the life cycle of monarch butterflies, in our family's yard. My aunt just sent me a photo of a fat, stripey monarch caterpillar chewing happily away on it. I am over the moon. Any effort from us to support and make space for our fellow creatures brings us the sense of connection and belonging that we all crave. We can all be of service in small ways in our own yards and it will add up to a positive change for the world.
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New Year 2018
Here are two perspectives of the moon. The one on the left was taken last summer while I was in Canada and the one below was taken with the same camera in New Zealand a couple of months ago. I had always noticed a difference in the moon and the night sky when I travelled there, but hadn't had a way of comparing until now. I had always assumed it was upside down, but it isn't quite.
It's amazing how our brains and bodies calibrate to the tiny details in our surroundings without conscious effort. When we take ourselves out of our usual environment, there are so many things we notice as strange or new that we didn't even realize we noticed at home. Next time I go there, I'll have to take a video of the water draining from a sink, because it spins the opposite way. I say this for a few reasons, but mostly because when I go there, I am way more interested in watching the sink drain than when I'm at home.
There are many man-made differences between our countries, of course, but it's the way we experience nature differently that really interests me. On the other side of earth, the coldest winds blow from the south. I have more research to do on bumblebee nests, but I have an idea that New Zealand bumblebees orient their homes to the southeast, while the Canadian ones may prefer the northeast. Same world, same creatures, but there is a fundamental difference in how they relate to the universe.
It's amazing how our brains and bodies calibrate to the tiny details in our surroundings without conscious effort. When we take ourselves out of our usual environment, there are so many things we notice as strange or new that we didn't even realize we noticed at home. Next time I go there, I'll have to take a video of the water draining from a sink, because it spins the opposite way. I say this for a few reasons, but mostly because when I go there, I am way more interested in watching the sink drain than when I'm at home.
There are many man-made differences between our countries, of course, but it's the way we experience nature differently that really interests me. On the other side of earth, the coldest winds blow from the south. I have more research to do on bumblebee nests, but I have an idea that New Zealand bumblebees orient their homes to the southeast, while the Canadian ones may prefer the northeast. Same world, same creatures, but there is a fundamental difference in how they relate to the universe.