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What was happening at the FWG in October 2006
October 31 — Notes from Christine Hanrahan Every so often, usually at this time of year and in very early spring, I do a detailed exploration of the FWG. I look inside thickets, spend a lot of time in one place poking around, and follow trails that only reveal themselves when the foliage vanishes. Today was one such day. Although I was at the garden for over 2 hours I didn't finish going into every area I wanted to. I am always astonished by the number of well-trod trails that appear once the grass gets beaten down and leaves drop from the trees and shrubs. I am surprised because I can't believe I didn't see them before. But there they are, clearly well used. The obvious ones, such as the 3 or 4 into the ravine are easy to spot, but today I came across about 4 trails that led into thickets, mostly around the old field. One area was obviously used as a spot to kick back and have a beer or two or five! I picked up the bottles and brought them home to recycle. In another spot, the vegetation was flattened as if someone or several someones had spent much time there, there was even an old cardboard box opened up and flattened to serve as something to sit on. Needless to say, quite a lot of garbage and more beer bottles and cans than I could carry in 2 or 3 other locations. Anyway, it was an interesting few hours, and the most interesting thing I found will probably seem rather boring to you, but.... I discovered a yellow warbler nest built entirely onto a tangle of DSV vines thickly lined with DSV fluff. Previously, as some of you know, I've found a number of nests made in part or entirely of DSV fibres and lined with the fluff, but never a nest made exclusively *ON* the vines. I took a lot of photos and am sorry to say that few do it justice (low light levels rendered most of the shots blurry). Another interesting and amusing episode: I missed cleaning one of the nest boxes in the old field in August, because a family of young red squirrels was using the box along with two treefrogs! Today I decided to have a look inside. I found a perfect tree swallow nest, one of the best in fact in this year of poor quality swallow nests, thick mat of vegetation and well lined with feathers. On top of that was a finely shredded mass of DSV fluff and grass. No tree frog of course, and the squirrels had long since left, so I prodded the nest gently and out popped a beautiful white-footed mouse, not terribly afraid, or perhaps just in a state of shock! It sat and looked at me for what seemed like ages until I slowly closed the entrance panel and screwed it back into place. I thought to myself, now that is a well-used box, from tree swallows, to red squirrels, to tree frogs and now mice.
None were found in buckthorn this year (so far anyway), whereas in previous years I have found a number of nests in buckthorn including green heron, cardinal and catbird nests. I think this reflects the fact that Tony has worked hard at removing most of the big buckthorns at FWG. Birds were relatively quiet today, but the first one I saw was a beautiful big adult female cooper's hawk in the new woods.
It was an interesting day but a raw and cold one. | |||||
| Signs of fall - from Sandy Garland | ||
 Mushroom season is drawing to a close as the weather gets cooler. These small puffballs are well past their prime. |  One warm fall day, we found these tiny pale-green aphids crawling all over a rotting stump. |  Piles of cones, walnuts, acorns, and butternuts are appearing around the FWG as squirrels stock up for winter. |
 One of the last hornet nests was broken this week, allowing us to see the amazingly strong interior structure. | ||
October 31 - Notes and photos from Christine Hanrahan Late fall sees a winding down of insect activity, birds are fewer and quieter, and flowering plants have mostly gone dormant. However, there is still a lot of interest to see and speculate about at the FWG. Yesterday, October 30, a less windy and much warmer, sunnier day, saw at least 8 harvestmen spiders (AKA Daddy Longlegs) basking on the various rock and wood piles around the garden. | ||||
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Woolly Bears are considerably fewer than they have been when it was easy to see 20 or more on a short walk through FWG. Yesterday I had three. Other insects are quite scarce these days although I counted 9 Polistes dominula and one P. fuscata yesterday. |  Christine found this little clay pot in the Ash Woodlot. Formed by a Potter Wasp, it once held a wasp larva along with dead insects or caterpillars for it to eat. People on the OFNC nature walk at the FWG on Sunday saw one of these on our shed wall. We also saw P. furcatus and P. dominula nests and a few very torpid wasps in the shed. | |||
Chipmunks are getting fat and rotund and their little cheek pouches are stuffed with seeds. Manitoba maples, birch, sumac are some of the favourites, as are acorns. And of course, the feeders are a ready food supply. You can see them running back and forth from their seed source to their burrows, over and over. Small holes in the ground are a good indication that you've found a chipmunk hideaway. Underground, their burrows can extend for up to 12 feet! Red squirrels have been stockpiling both nuts and cones for many weeks now. Great piles of cones can be found in a number of locations not just at FWG but around the Arboretum and the farm. Meanwhile, if you look carefully you'll see walnuts and butternuts stashed in the forks of trees, or piled in easy to reach places. Red squirrel nests are usually easy to see, just look for great big balls of grass in the trees. They prefer conifers, but will build them in just about any tree. The attached photos show one nest in an optimum location, nice and high, quite well hidden (below, right), while the other shows one that is relatively low and very exposed (below, left). However, squirrels aren't stupid. Red squirrels will use nest boxes or tree cavities as both a winter hideaway and as nesting sites, and they also utilize underground chambers. One winter day I watched a red squirrel shoot out of an underground tunnel, scramble up a tree and investigate one of its grassy nests, and then disappear into a tree hole. All of this at the FWG. | ||||
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It is also easier to see the nests of various wasp species too. | ||||
There are a surprising number of plants still in flower, and of course Witch Hazel is now blooming. Many plants have beautiful and even colourful seed pods - witness the bittersweet vine, for example.
Lots to see, it just takes time and patience! | ||||
Once leaves fall it is easier to find bird nests, although many are very well hidden and not readily discernible. Nests of cavity users
are impossible to find unless they have used nest boxes. However, I have found a number of
nests (although not as many as in some years). Three or four goldfinch
nests, a couple of cardinal nests, several song sparrow nests, two robin
nests, a red-winged blackbird nest some distance from the pond, and a
vireo nest, probably warbling vireo. I watched a yellow warbler carry
nesting material into a raspberry thicket this past summer and yesterday
I went looking for the nest which turned out to be very easy to find and
in almost the same spot as a yellow warbler built one last year (see photo).
Raspberry thickets are a particular favourite of this species for nesting
purposes, for obvious reasons.
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October 18 - Notes and photos from Christine Hanrahan
The last few days have been fairly interesting around the FWG. On Monday there was a flock of about 30 juvenile robins feasting, along with about the same number of starlings, on mountain ash berries and crabapples near the ravine. An adult red-tailed hawk was in the Arboretum just north of the FWG, also on Monday. Today, Wednesday, a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL was hanging around the north end of the ash woods, flying between the conifers and the birch trees. A cooper's hawk was perched in the ravine.
Not birds, but still interesting:
I noticed the sparrows and goldfinches eating goldenrod seeds, chipmunks gathering manitoba maple keys and crabapples, red squirrels stashing quantities of walnuts and conifer cones, bees and flies around the asters still in bloom, and chickadees finding lots of insects on the various trees in the Ash Woods. And for those "fungiphiles" quite a lot of mushrooms after the rain, including lots of tiny little Mycenas on the trees. |
Other birds around these last few days:
Monarch Butterfly - 1 (on phlox in BYG)
 October 6 - If you're a regular visitor to the FWG, you're probably wondering whether we're planning to get a horse. Andrew and Rob built this split rail fence on 24 September as part of the Butterfly Meadow "renovation" that's been going on all summer. Work began in the spring with 4 new Hackberry trees in the west field. In June, we added perennial from our nursery - Pearly Everlasting, Flat-topped Asters, Hairy Beardtongue, Pussytoes. During the summer, Julia, Lesley, Carla, Isabelle, Jim, Andrew K., Andrew R., Chris, Carolyn, Annie, Stefan, Felix, Monica, Diane, and Sandy worked steadily at removing Dog-strangling vine from as much of the meadow as possible. Last month, Al removed a couple of Manitoba Maples that were starting to shade the north end, building a brush pile from the branches in an area prepared by Sarah and Sandy. Andrew and Rob rototilled and built the fence. We are now planting this area and will continue in the spring. Much of this work was funding by a grant from the Evergreen Foundation, which took the form of a gift certificate for $1000 from our local Home Depot. We rented the rototiller there, bought landscape cloth to supress swallowwort, and bought wood and paint for a new bulletin board to publicize the project and the butterfly meadows in general. Charlie and David, with help from Colin, Al, and Tony built the bulletin board. |
