For Large Values of Three

Last night we set up the moth sheet. And a new moth for the yard (I think) paid a visit.

A Harris's Three Spot, Harrisimemna trisignata.

I don't know about you, but I don't think Mr. Harris was all that good at counting.

I mean, I can count nine spots without even trying.

Just sayin'.

🦋  🦋  🦋  🦋  🦋

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

More Frogs Are On The Way

Green frogs can be found all about our yard.

It helps that we have four ponds. And live in a wet area.

I little under a year ago I had installed the fourth pond, and almost immediately Green Frogs showed up. And the frogs were back again earlier this year. But This month I noticed the frogs were not frequenting this little pond. It seems the water had become stagnant and a just a little bit stinky.

So I cleaned it out. The water is still a bit cloudy. But it seems it is clean enough.

And now there are eggs.

Lots of eggs.

Which hopefully means lots more frogs.

Daylight Time

Patty visited her brother last week. She gave him some plants from our gardens.

He gave her a time piece that had been their father's.

A sundial. Jim, her brother, thought I might like it.

He was right. Patty thought it would look nice out in the garden. I think she meant just set on the ground. As it had a mounting screw hole I was thinking on a post, and told her so.

"Like on a stump?" she asked. Hmmm ...

Perfect.

Roosting Wren

Yesterday we visited friends for an outdoor, physically distanced, but socially close, Murder Mystery dinner.

We've not yet solved the murder, although we've ruled out two suspects. The next detective session is in two weeks at our place.

But this post is about what was waiting when we got home.

This Carolina Wren.

Which has been roosting outside out back door for what seems like at least a month now.

Most nights, should we be returning home after dark (I know, rare these days), the bird flies as soon as we approach the back door.

Perhaps it is getting used to us?

🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦  🐦

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.

A New Turtle In Town

The other morning in I was in our bathroom, doing what one does in such a room when I heard a commotion outside. Something or someone was banging around on the door to our crawl space.

It was a turtle.

An Eastern Painted Turtle. This was not the place it should be.

That's better. Now we have two Eastern Painted Turtles living in our back pond. Hamster, on the left, and the new one, yet to be named (make suggestions in the comments) on the right.

And while Hamster will swim right up to me, expecting to be fed, the new one is very shy. Heading to the center of the pond, amongst the water lilies, at the slightest sign of us. It took awhile to get this image.

Now, last Friday, I went out to get the lawnmower, which is in one of our outbuildings. Near the back pond. And I find the new turtle digging a hole. The turtle freezes, hoping I won't notice. I go into the building to get the mower, and when I come out the turtle is gone.

Bummer. Sorry.

So I go mow the front yard, leaving the back to the turtles. And sure enough it went back and started digging again.

I set up at a respectful distance, and watched as it went about its turtle business.

And when she was done I went up and found this:

I covered it up for the night, to protect any eggs from the local raccoons, fox, and other predators.

And the next day I built this:

The pond is in the background.

I finished it with cinder blocks to dissuade digging.

And in 72 days we hope to have baby turtles, eager to get to the safety of the pond.

So set a reminder to check back in just under two and a half months.

Carranza Road

Not far from where we live, the paved road turns to dirt. And it is at this spot that we reliably see Common Nighthawks.

It is a rather out of the way place, well within the Wharton State Forest. And I expected we'd be alone out there.

I was wrong.

The Common Nighthawks were there.

Peenting and Booming.

And we enjoyed watching them.

When we drove up there we saw a truck. Maybe they're here to see the Nighthawks, as this is a well known place. Turns out they were not.

"Is that your truck?" the driver of the truck we saw asked us. Seems there was another truck parked here. This truck:

"Nope", I replied.

Seems the folks in the first truck saw a dog looking around the second truck. And the folks in the first truck assumed the worst, that the dog's owner was in trouble. And as there was no cell service here, they drove off to call the police,

While they were gone, we heard someone calling in the distance. It turns out that the person was calling for the dog.

Eventually the police came.

And came.

And came.

I guess it was a slow night.

And they went wandering down the trail.

Unfortunately for use, they left the SUVs running. So much for solitude.

During this time a black Jeep Cherokee drove up, saw the police cars, turned around and drove away. And ten minutes later did the same thing. And a sports car that had no business being on the dirt road drove up, sat for a bit, and then left. A rendezvous interrupted?

Eventually the cops came back. With no info on the dog, the owners of the truck, nor the person calling.

Two of the three cops left. One sat there and waited. SUV running. While we sat in our chairs, watching the Nighthawks.

Eventually a family of four, mom, dad, son, daughter, and a dog, came up the trail. To their truck. The cop got out to greet them. They thanked us for our concern, despite my saying it wasn't us who called the cops on them.

They left. The cop left.

We stayed and watched the Nighthawks. And listened to the Whippoorwills.

And we liked it so much we went back two days later. We were alone this time.

Much nicer without engines running.

Mis-Identifying Frogs with High-tech

I have a one of those pocket computers we call phones. Specifically an iPhone XS. And since it is a computer it can run computer applications. Which are nowadays called "apps".

And one of those apps is Seek, from the iNaturalist folks.* It is used to identify and log plants and animals you come across, and can get a picture of.

I spotted this critter out by our back pond.

A Southern Leopard frog. And I thought I'd use the Seek app to log my sighting.

This is what it told me:

Now my phone has a GPS feature. And had the Seek app taken advantage of this feature, it could have determined that I was well outside of the range of the Northern Leopard Frog. It's not even clear that this species occurs in New Jersey, and if it does it is in the far northwestern corner of the state.

I did get a badge, the hexagon thing, for logging my first amphibian sighting. So there is that.

~~~~~~~~~~
* These are the same folks whose other app, iNaturalist, told me a Marmot was likely a mushroom. And when I  pointed this out to their support rep, I was told this was correct behavior. And that it could have been a mushroom.

I guess this is a case of fool me once ...

Orange Tanager

Some Scarlet Tanagers aren't.

They're 'Orange' Tanagers instead.

Like this one that visited the our bird baths.

It is always cool to see a Scarlet Tanager in the yard. To say nothing of having them splash around just outside our living room. A visual treat for sure.

🥕  🍅  🥕  🍅  🥕

The red color of bird feathers comes mainly from pigments the food they eat, in the form of carotenoids. The same pigments that make tomatoes red and carrots and pumpkins orange. I gather this fellow was eating from the orange end of the food chain.

Composting

Before:

Lumber delivered.

After:

Compost bins. I used these plans, modified to use what I had on hand (i.e. 4" wood screws instead of carriage bolts). (And I did make one mistake, can you see it?)

Left over parts:

Wait, what? (And no, this wasn't a result of the 'mistake'.)

🔨  🔨  🔨  🔨  🔨

I ordered the lumber from Lowes and had it delivered. And they screwed up the order. Three 8' 2"x2"'s were mysteriously canceled from my order. And two extra 8' 2"x6"'s were included instead. I suppose I could have made 2"x2"'s out of them ...

🔨  🔨  🔨  🔨  🔨

Now that we have the bins we plan to do composting 'right'. Where by "right" I mean not the way we were doing it. Which was to throw everything in a big pile.

This pile. Or piles as it is.

The main problem with this approach is that the compost is immediately used by the plants around and even in the pile. I tried to dig some out earlier this year and it was just a mass of roots.

If you look closely just below and a little left of center you can see a bit of red. Go ahead and bigafy.

You are seeing these flowers.

Our friend Jen gave them to us for Christmas. They bloomed and died. And then tossed onto the pile. Where they seemed to have found a second life.

And added more roots to the mass. Yay.

Truth in Advertising?

So much to process here ...

What is "original" about a frozen pizza? And surely there were thin pizzas before this one?

Maybe its the "Artificial Preservative Free Crust"? Although surely there were preservative free crusts before this? So that's not the original bit. Maybe the crust is free, and you just pay for the preservatives? That would be original ...

[Update: Maybe I was reading it wrong, perhaps, "Artificial" is modifying "Crust", and not "Preservative". An "Artificial Crust" would be original. And explain the cardboardish flavor notes ...]

Good to know it's "made with real cheese". I'm sure this is not the original bit. And is 'not real cheese' a real thing?  Now if it was made with the 'not real cheese' ...

Usually, pepperoni is made with pork and beef. However, if poultry meat is included US law says that needs to be noted on the package. And if there is a law about it then it sure isn't original.

It has never occurred to me to grill a pizza, nor do they provide grilling instructions. I did not grill this one. The provided instructions were helpful. For instance, it is important to remove the plastic before cooking. Surely you knew this? And is seems pizza grilling is a thing (and thus not original).

And sadly, it wasn't the lack of taste that was original either. Pretty much a sure thing with keep no-name frozen pizza.

So what is the original bit?

Somebody's Nightmare

Hmmm ... pages coming alive.

Page 191 in this case.

(I'd be worried if it was pages 222 or 228 ...)

🕷  📖  🕷  📖  🕷

Common Spiders of North America by Richard A. Bradley

Apartment Complex

For rodents.

During the day Eastern Chipmunks make their presence known, coming and going.

Doing important Chipmunk business.

But when night falls ...

.. the mice take over.

I'm surprised I didn't capture any snakes slithering in.

And I wonder if the Chipmunks and Mice are tolerant of each other, using the same tunnels. Or do they completely different networks. And if the former, do they raid each other's food stores?

Maybe I'll have to get one of these things to find out ...

Struttin'

Went for a hike this morning, Caranza Memorial to Apple Pie Hill (Route 532). And then did some fish pond maintenance. Not in the mood to make dinner, so pizza it was.

And on the way to pick it up I came across this fine fellow.

Strutting and calling (loud and not very melodious).

I didn't see any Peahens about though. Maybe they didn't like his singing either.

Mini-Bog Take 2

Trouble begins ...

The mini-bog was sinking. Not good.

I had dug out and installed the mini-bog when it was very wet. Then we hit a dry spell, and the water went away. And the bog, a hole filled with peat moss, shrunk.

Drastic measures were called for. So I dug out the plants. And then I dug out the bog. I put in a liner, left over from the 'big bog', jabbed some holes in it, and put the peat moss back in.

And then a I added more peat moss. Next the plants were replanted. The ones that had survived that is.

I gathered some cedar bark from the back woods to use as edging.

So far it has been holding up. We'll see what happens in the heat of the summer. Fingers crossed.

Spider Drama

I don't really know what was going here.

I believe these are female, left, and male, right, Dimorphic Jumper Spiders. But I'm no expert at spider ID. So I could be wrong.

And I've no idea what prey is in the female's cliches.

The drama played out above our side door. The presumptive male approached and retreated. Moved to its left and then to its right. I watched for over a minute as this dance went on. The female moving little if at all.

Was the male looking to snatch the prey? Did it consider the female prey? Did I happen upon mating behavior?

🕷  🕷  🕷  🕷  🕷

The Dimorphic Jumper is so named because there are two morphs of the male spider. The one in our little drama above, mottled gray and white with orange 'boxing gloves'. And an all black version, with  little tufts on its head. It seems the orange gloved morph is better attracting a mate at close quarters, while the black version is more adept at long distance courting.

In the end the male wandered off.

As did I.