Category: Animals

Butterfly man

11 Jun 202610 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

[From 30-May-2026] Sure, I know it’s there to suck up the minerals from my sweat. That doesn’t stop my moment of irrational wonder, feeling in harmony with all of Nature. Butterflies land on me!

These guys are always around the wet soil after watering in. They descend in a flutter of half a dozen or more, and land on the wet ground. Today, my hand was damp from the hose, so I slowly extended it toward them. And that’s when I received this sure sign that I’m one with the universe. To prove its intention, it gave me all the time in the world to get my camera from a bucket of gear nearby and capture the moment using my wrong hand!

As far as names for things, I’ll go with it’s a Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus), from my generally accurate or at least ballpark iNaturalist app. I looked into it at some point: they’re apparently after minerals and other nutrients they don’t get from nectar, and the behavior is called “puddling”. Hm.

On the right side of the fence

10 Jun 202610 Jun 2026 by Mike (tfb)

Wonder who spent the night here in the tall grass, so close to all those veggies. At least they stayed on the right side of the fence! It’s endlessly satisfying how that single white line and its steady pulse of intense electrical jolts have managed to keep the veg plot clear of deer. I can’t say for sure that’s what’s doing it, but deer are definitely all around, traveling through these fields, and they were a big garden forager before and during various lighter-weight fencing attempts. They only completely stopped devouring after that single line of defense went up. No electric fence guides I’ve read suggest just a single line, and yet, the plot’s been deer-free for years now. Can’t say the same for groundhogs, that extension of the electrical defense was a fair bit of work and a fail. But, still no deer!

Cows across the way

15 Oct 202529 Sep 2025 by Mike (tfb)

Cows grazing away from their home on rented pasture, on a delightful, newly-seasonable warm and sunny end of September day. You can’t tell from the zoomed photo, but they’re around 400′ (122m) away, seen through an opening in the trees. Being calmly stared at by cows at a distance is a fact of life that I finally just looked into. Cows apparently have amazing, better-than-human motion detection, near 360° vision with eyes on the sides of their heads, and an exceptional sense of smell that literally works for miles. They detect you from afar, then turn to stare with both eyes (binocular vision), so they can check you out in three dimensions to better decide what you’re up to. Peacefully grazing, always aware!

Best not to touch!

29 May 20258 May 2025 by Mike (tfb)

Meet the oil beetle! When I see new insects that I don’t immediately recognize, there’s an automatic, “Who goes there?!” challenge in my head. So many little critters can do so much veggie damage, one can’t help a “you’re either with me or against me” reaction to the unknown. In this case, I have to identify this fairly spectacular, sparkly beetle, sitting on a thistle that will soon be tilled under. (More to follow… Think powerful blistering agent, voracious beehive raider,… I doubt there’s a single insect species that doesn’t have it’s own odd and elaborate quirkiness )

Robin at the window

24 May 20252 Apr 2025 by Mike (tfb)

Looked down at the patio door and what did I see? A robin on the outside, standing right up to the glass between us, kind of looking back at me. Or maybe (more likely) seeing its reflection as another robin. It’s a bit of a surprise. Robins are usually summer company in the field, darting around, searching for bugs as I weed or harvest, not hopping around in near zero weather, in snow and freezing rain. It’s like being let into another part of their life. In any case, this guy or gal looks pleasantly plump and unperturbed. I’m glad to see they are quite all-weather and doing fine in the off-season.

Munching and mating

25 Jul 202417 Jul 2024 by Mike (tfb)

Common red soldier beetle on flowering parsley

Definitely on the good bug list, these common red soldier beetles are happily multitasking, munching on the pollen and nectar from flowering parsley, while mating. Now that’s procreation! A quick background check comes up all good for these guys in the garden: the adults are great later-season pollinators, and in addition to feasting on flowers, they eat aphids and other small, pesty insects. Plus, their predatory larvae feed on insect eggs, snails, slugs, and more. Welcome, my friends, to the show that never ends!

Not a buddy

29 Dec 20246 Jul 2024 by Mike (tfb)

Yeah, these aren’t my buddies. This season, the first time for me, rabbits hopped out of the cute woodland creature category and into Pests & Disease. At least one or two are definitely creeping around the garden, so far not damaging much, but making their presence clear with sightings and droppings. The way it seems to go, regular appearance leads to exploratory munching, then full-on devouring. Where the low-slung electric fence seems to be working for the groundhogs, I suppose bunnies might just…hop over?! Stay tuned!