• Animal Tracks • Grazing chickens

It is really amazing to see how timing in nature are connected when it comes to timing. Have you ever wondered how it is that a certain tree or insect or animal does a certain thing at just the right time each year? Of course sometimes they misfire and either the result is better or worse. We have had a somewhat usual spring as regards insects. Too many gypsy moth caterpillars, but by and large I haven't noticed anything out of place other than the lack of bees and wasps. I moved the cows from a lower pasture to a pasture higher in elevation, and it rained. Can you imagine the flies? When I moved them there were a few, the usual resident population of flies with the herd of cows. The morning before I moved them I was enjoying watching the droplets of rainwater on the fence wire in what appeared to be six parallel races slowly moving down the slope on the wires. One droplet would move along until it encountered another droplet and then merge and speed up until it began to slow again and merge with the next. Visually it was intriguing. I moved the cows that evening. Next morning, I got up to water the cows and the fence wire was no longer covered with the lovely water droplets but with flies. It seemed like millions of them; A population explosion overnight! By the following day the number had tapered off but it was quite a stunning event. I have to say that while I appreciate the role that flies play in nature I really could manage without them, esthetically that is. I also am very protective of the wasps, hornets, and bees here. I know that they play a vital role in pest control and are top line predators of the insect kingdom just as are spiders and mantids. But, I really didn't need to be victim to an irate hornet. I was loading the dumpster that we have set up here, in the heat of the afternoon, and banged closed the door. I was wearing my sun hat and safety glasses that are particularly tight to the face, when a hornet flew up under the lens and stung me in the lower eyelid of my right right eye. Now, I have been in a tussle or two and know what it feels like to be smacked in the eye. There certainly wasn't any real blow but the sting felt like someone had taken a rip out of my eye. Not an experience I would recommend. Fortunately I didn't swell up too much but did have a puffy eye and head ache for a couple of hours. These critters keep us on our toes.

Back to Email