This particular gall – the wool sower gall, is produced by a tiny wasp called Callirhytis seminator. There are many different types of galls but essentially they are all growths on various parts of plants, such as leaves, twigs, stems, roots, etc. They can be caused by flies, mites, moths, and gall wasps, but sometimes […]
Archive for the ‘Fauna’ Category
Wool Sower Gall
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Interesting on July 1, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Spring Finally Returns on Cape Cod
Posted in Fauna, Guest blogger, Interesting, tagged Events on May 18, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Looking back at posts from the past few years that were written around this time, I am seeing some slight differences in the patterns of the critters that live around our Cape Cod home. I usually get large black ants running around my kitchen for several days in late April. Then these ants suddenly disappear. […]
Rare sight
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on May 15, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Do you ever kick yourself, after the fact, when you have an encounter with an unfamiliar animal or plant, because you are so engrossed in the experience that you neglect to document it on camera? This is the second time now, and both occurences involve birds. I did not bring out the camera when a […]
Cukes, anyone?
Posted in Edible, Fauna, Interesting on May 12, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Every now and again, animals and plants wash up on the beaches in great quantities. Aside from the seasonal cycles which land huge quantities of seaweed on the shores, and cyclical die-offs (e.g. mole crabs), there are the storms that dislodge anything from scallops to surf clams and cockles. I guess this weekend it was […]
View to a kill
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on February 9, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Nature often shows her seemingly cruel side, and the backyard is not immune from those demonstrations. A sharp shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus) surprised a starling (Sturnus vulgaris) near the bird feeder today, while it was feasting on the bird seed we leave out. Sharp shinned hawks are not all that uncommon around here but they […]
Keep Clam and Carry On
Posted in Edible, Fauna, Guest blogger, Recipe on December 17, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
This fall season has been excellent for clamming and oystering on Cape Cod. However, the usual Linguini with Clams and Clam Chowder had been served in our kitchen quite enough and needed some spicing up. Luckily for us, a restaurant we frequent serves something like this excellent dish that follows. Although I had an inkling of the ingredients, […]
Fall spiders
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on September 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
I’m amazed at the variety of spiders I see in the yard or around the house. Most of the time I don’t have a camera on hand or I am rushing off to one place or another, and when I come back the spider has inevitably disappeared. With the orb weavers you have a bit […]
Captured
Posted in Fauna, Guest blogger, Interesting on September 23, 2013 | 2 Comments »
As another blog post declared, it has definitely been a year of firsts for us here at Cape Cod Woodland Garden blog. Much of the nature we have experienced over the past year here on Cape Cod has had me running for the guide books. Chuck here appeared sometime this spring and at first I had no idea what he […]
Little guardians
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on June 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
The woodland garden is full of spiders and their prey at this time of year. Every day I find new webs of these little orb weavers (I am going to take a guess that these are Mecynogea lemniscata – basilica orbweaver). We’ve had more than our fair share of rain and wind, and these webs […]
The Cape Cod Zoo (in my backyard)
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Guest blogger on May 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
It is an incredible testament to nature these past few weeks that the group of wasps living outside my kitchen window has returned to the exact same spot they have nested at ever since we moved to this house. Last fall we waited until the last of the plants and insects were done thriving and got our house […]