Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

DThille

DThille

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OK, well this post doesn't have any trees, but it does have a couple extra critters. We spent much of Canada Day (July 1) and yesterday at the country place. We had been away June 20-27, so definitely got behind out there. The volunteer canola (self-seeded from the crop there last year) is blooming quite profusely, and that gave some photo opportunities.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

When doing some high mowing of the canola, I had seen a bumblebee, so I took an opportunity later to go for a walkabout and attempt to find some photogenic six-legged critters. I stopped using the mower in part because a lot of my cover crop seed is understory to the canola...I'll need to do more work with the scythe to cut back some of the canola without impacting the other cover crop too much. That said, the canola is acting as a cover crop, but if it generates seed, there will be more to clean up in years to come. Pros and cons to leaving it. If I'd known it would come up this thickly, I'd have spent less on cover crop seed.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Another bee...I need to find a good site for bee identification. We have something like 300 native bee species here in Manitoba plus the European honeybee used by beekeeping operations. I'd like to promote the native bees.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Killdeer in flight...contrast between the volunteer canola and the cereal grain planted in the land around our property.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Killdeer

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Perhaps a better photo of a killdeer in flight.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

I haven't yet been able to identify this butterfly. Many photos for identification show the wings open which tends to be brighter.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Same butterfly...I'm not sure if it was lapping up from the flower (appears that way) or the plant juices generally as I had been through this area with my scythe.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

It's a bit tough to make out the killdeer in this shot. One of their behaviours to draw you away from their nest / young (they are ground-nesting shorebirds that don't hang out near a shore) is to feign injury / a broken wing. They try to draw predators / threats away...if you get too close to them they'll fly off and try again. This is one of the reasons I don't want to go in this area with the tractor any more.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

In another area of the property there are patches of clover among the grass. I left a number of the patches unmowed to support pollinators.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

It may be an optical illusion, but I have a couple shots of a bee that appears grey in colour.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

I think I make / made out wings on this insect. It's possibly a sweat bee or similar...or I'm imagining things. I don't think it was an ant.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Another view.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

This one is definitely different.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Grasshopper

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

One of these things is not like the others....
 

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I think I repeated an image above.

Now photos from July 2. All images were taken with a Nikon D3500 (a fairly base level DSLR). Bird photos of the bird feeder area are generally taken through a window so not as good.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

American goldfinch

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Franklin's gulls

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Killdeer keeping an eye on the pup and me.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

More Franklin's gulls heading approximately the same direction. The first and third ones are immature (guessing a year old) as their heads aren't fully dark yet.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Western kingbird. I'm generally happy to see insect-eating birds around...the more mosquitoes they eat, the fewer to eat me.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

We also have a pair of eastern kingbirds around...I didn't get any photos of them this weekend.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

I did promise flowers. This rose is named 'Suzanne' - one of its parents is the wild rose, so this plant suckers a lot.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Western meadowlark

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

This time with an insect in its beak.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

A pair of male goldfinches.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Female goldfinch on the left.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Lousy photo, but a pair of Baltimore orioles in the edge of the canola caught my eye. Shortly after seeing them there I looked up and saw a whitetail deer (none of those photos had good focus through the window).

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Baltimore oriole...we did see two males, but only one deigned to stick around for photos.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Brown thrasher. The orange in the bushes beyond its beak is the oriole.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Another poor photo, but there is a cedar waxwing in there...distortion is from the window.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

I'm enamoured with the brown thrashers. Before purchasing this property, I had never heard of them, let alone know their breeding territory includes southern Manitoba.
 
It’s a line (title?) from a song.

Encouraging wildlife diversity is a part of what I’m trying to accomplish with the property. We bought the property in 2008…in one of the early years we spent a weekend out there (treating it like a cottage) and identified over 20 species of birds. One of the next steps is bee identification and habitat promotion. I may drill a few logs for the cavity nesting bees.
 
That sounds beautiful.
And helping the bees is a win-win. You help them, they help your garden thrive! We hope to in the future attract native (stingless) bees here.
 
Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

A poor photo as I took it into the sun through the windshield, but yesterday as I was pulling onto the property the 2 killdeer chicks were on the driveway accompanied by one of the adults.
 
Hopefully that means the young have all hatched, so your tractor won't go over them. Is this the season for birds to 'mate'?
 
The eggs ought to be replaced by chicks, particularly in the light of the fact that these have fledged and aren't in any sort of down.

We are in early summer here, so chicks are fledging (at different rates depending on species). I also saw a young house sparrow being fed by an adult.

It's really interesting to see the young brown-headed cowbirds though. This is a species that lays in other birds' nests and lets them rear the young. So you'll see a sparrow feeding a young cowbird that is much larger than the adult.
 
Oh wow, yes I bet that'd be interesting!

My father bred canaries as songbirds; he won many competitions! It's showed me the process from start to finish. We also bred small quaill and sometimes the odd chicken.
 
We were out again yesterday, so have a few more photos to share.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

The false astilbe is coming into flower and was abuzz with activity. I haven't identified this smaller fellow yet with the red abdoment. It may be a thread-waisted wasp (Sphex lucae).

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

A bee with a friend.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Flies getting in on the action.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

A familiar bluet - these eat other insects.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

A nest in the weeds

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

A closer look

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

I'm not certain, but the paler egg may be that of a common grackle and the darker one that of the brown-headed cowbird...they parasitize nests by laying eggs where others have built.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

After getting home to the city, I noticed this character on a cucumber plant. This is a four-lined plant bug...original name.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Another view.
 
Here's a few pollinator shots from the city garden. I was hoping to get some decent shots of the small pollinators that visit the umbel heads of valerian but they generally move too quickly and tend not to stay in one place very long. Still, I hope these are a bit of interest.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

I'm pretty sure we brought some of this ribbon grass with us when we moved here in 1998. This is the first time I recall it forming seed heads. Right beside this patch is mulched, so perhaps reduced competition and increased moisture with some heat are just the right conditions.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

An overall view of the front bed from the deck. The white flowers in the foreground are valerian. The pale purple flowers at the fence are a hardy geranium that we also brought with us in 1998...it has bloomed before, but never this profusely.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Flying critters can be made out on the right.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

There ain't no flies on us...oh...wait.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Beggars can't be choosers I guess.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Another little guy.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

Finally! Based on the antennae, I wonder if this might be a long-horn bee. It is quite small, perhaps a centimetre in length.
 
Your clover flowers are beautiful. I've tried a number of times to get some going here, unsuccessfully
 
HelenCate said:
Your clover flowers are beautiful. I've tried a number of times to get some going here, unsuccessfully
Click to expand...
Thanks…I’m pretty sure this is an introduced species, but it spreads quite willingly. I decided to leave it grow and flower and if they set seed that’s fine by me. I’d rather have a “lawn” of clover that reaches a certain height than grass that requires cutting. The clover does compete well.

There are a couple different clovers in the cover crop mix I used in the big area as well including Persian clover.

I have more photos from this weekend I haven’t processed yet. In the meantime, here’s a couple I took with my phone.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees

The bees really seem to like the phacelia.

Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees


And now for something completely different….
Let Me Tell You About the Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees
 
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