Day 262: Seed Time

 Backyard Nature, Geometry and Nature, Native Plants, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Sep 192014
 

Along Piney Woods Church Road, the American Burnweed (Erechtites hieraciifolius) is coming into seed.  The flower heads, which stay almost entirely closed while the flower blooms are bursting open to reveal a globe of feathery parachutes with seeds attached.  The weed itself is a nondescript native annual with a penchant for cropping up in unmown lawns.  And certainly the flower is not spectacular, and does not seem to attract many intriguing pollinators.  But even though the wind will carry these seeds far and wide to many a lawn and pasture, still I find seed time among the burnweed to be a time of wonders.

 

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Day 261: Roadside Zoo

 Agriculture and Husbandry, Backyard Nature, Insects, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Sep 182014
 

On my morning Piney Woods Church walk today, I wandered to the edge of a patch of weeds in search of a flower, and ended up discovering a roadside zoo.  I walked from one end of the road to the other, the intersection with Hutcheson Ferry Road.  Looking down the road, I saw a brilliant red trumpet-shaped flower vining up a sweetgum sampling in the road bank.  I waked down the road to examine it; then, turning to look back, I noticed the same flower scattered throughout the patch of weeds.  I strolled into the grass-lined gully beside Piney Woods Church Road, to get a couple of close-ups of the lovely blooms.  They turned out to belong to the Small Red Morning Glory (Ipomoea coccinea), a native of tropical America that has become naturalized to moist soil and waste places throughout the Southeast.

 

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I had just finished a series of photographs when I felt something on my leg.  I glanced down, and saw a black beetle, about an inch in length.  I am proud to say that I did not react right away to flick it away, but instead started taking pictures.  It seemed quite inquisitive and almost “cute”, in a beetle-ish sort of way.  After half a dozen pictures, I gently flicked the top of my sock to send him (or her) onto the grass.  There, I took another few photographs.  This quite charming beetle turned out to be none other than the Margined Blister Beetle (Epicauta funebris).  Evidently I was wise not to perturb it; as Bill Bixby used to remark on the 1980s TV show, “The Incredible Hulk”, “Don’t make me angry.  You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”  In this case, the blister beetle evidently secretes a caustic chemical that, not surprisingly, can cause skin irritation and blisters. The substance is even more toxic to horses.  A handful of crushed beetles, mixed in with a meal of alfalfa hay, can be fatal.  Still, I find this beetle quite endearing.

 

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Glancing through the weeds along the roadbank, I noticed a thin katydid perched on a stem.  It was most likely the Slender Meadow Katydid (Conocephalus fasciatus).  

 

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A nearby stem held an even more impressive specimen — a large Differential Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis).  How stunning!

 

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Nearby was yet another singing insect of late summer:  a Fork-Tailed Bush Katydid (Scudderia furcata).

 

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As I left this site of so many new discoveries, I glanced back and took a photograph.  This roadside zoo might not have a neon sign, gift shop, or parking lot, but it is well worth the visit!

 

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Day 260: Pasture Evening

 Backyard Nature, Golden Hour, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 172014
 

This post is from my second visit to Piney Woods Church Road today.  My first was hurried, squeezed in between rising and an errand in Atlanta.  On my second outing, with dogs in tow, I photographed a neighbor’s horse pasture illuminated by an orange glow a few minutes before sunset.

 

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Day 258: Leafing the Summer Behind

 Backyard Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  2 Responses »
Sep 152014
 

It as a gray and somber evening after a long day,  much of it involving a home water leak and its aftermath.  The sky was dark but somehow could not manage more than a few anemic drops of water falling onto the powdery sand and gravel of Piney Woods Church Road.  I found a cute little jumping spider, but all my efforts at photographs yielded nothing in sharp focus.  An afterthought photo of some yellow-brown leaves lying on the road bed will have to do.

 

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Day 257: Appreciating a Native Ant

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Sep 142014
 

On my Piney Woods Church Road walk early this afternoon, I encountered a large ant, perhaps half an inch in length, on a blossom of American burnweed (Erechtites hieracifolia).  So far this year, I have mostly avoided ants on my daily encounters, partly because most of the ones I see are tiny and very difficult to photograph, and partly because the word “ants’ here in Georgia tends to trigger images of fire ants and their vicious bites.  This ant was quite placid, allowing me to take quite a few photographs.  Its black head and amber body are distinctive enough that I was even able to make a tentative identification:  Camponotus americanus, a species of Carpenter Ant native to the Southeast.

 

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One More Encounter with the Curious Leaf-footed Bug

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Sep 122014
 

On today’s walk I met up with the Leaf-footed Bug again — quite likely, the same curious specimen I saw a couple of days previous.  I am not sure why I find this creature so endearing — perhaps because, despite its somewhat intimidating size (for a bug, that is), it is a harmless vegetarian like myself.  Still, its vignette does convey a slight bit of dread.  The Muscadine leaf in the photo, though, is in much more danger than the photographer.

 

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Day 255: The Arrowshaped Micrathena Spins

 Backyard Nature, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Sep 122014
 

Awaiting rain on another hot and dry late afternoon (rain that avoided us completely, falling heavily on Atlanta’s downtown instead), I wandered down Piney Woods Church Road in search of new discoveries.  Today, I encountered an unfamiliar yellow and black spider, about a centimeter across, with two spiny projections on the end of her abdomen.  I intently watched her spinning a web for several minutes.  Later, consulting my Spiders of the Carolinas text, I discovered that she was an Arrowshaped Micrathena (Micrathena sagittata), a striking orbweaver that is relatively uncommon in North and South Carolina (though I am not certain about Georgia).

 

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