Wildflower - Hedge Bindweed

Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium), a member of the Morning Glory family (Convolvulaceae), has showy flowers but can take over an area and choke out other plants. I have only found a few of these plants on our property but some of it is able to grow in piles of rock.



This native plant is an aggressive self-seeding (seeds can remain viable as long as 30 years) and the success of its creeping roots have led to it being classified as noxious weed.



The flowers can be white or pale pink with white stripes.

Wildflower - Steeplebush

I found this flowering Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa) in a moist, overgrown field behind our house. Steeplebush is a native plant, also known as hardhack because of its tough stem.



The Steeplebush flowers are about 1/8 of an inch wide and are arranged in narrow, pyramid-shaped clusters. A close-up view of the flowers.

Wildflower - Boneset

I found some Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) blooming in the wetland area below the pond at our cabin. This native wildflower is a member of the Aster family (Asteraceae) and is found in moist woods, thickets and swamps.



The flowers are about 1/4 inch across and form large flat clusters. Close-up view of individual flowers that form the cluster.



Boneset's leaves are its most distinctive feature -- they have a wrinkled texture, and pairs of leaves are united at the base. Boneset leaves were once used in bandages for broken bones, since the appearance of the joined leaves gave people the idea that the plant would be helpful for rejoining broken bones.

Return of the Japanese Beetles

The arrival of the hot days of summer also mark the annual return of the Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica). The Japanese beetle is native to Japan and the insect was first found in the United States in 1916 in a nursery near Riverton, New Jersey. These photos were taken in a wetland behind our barn.



The Japanese Beetles are here throughout the year but for ten months of the year they are living in the ground as a grub and feeding on grass roots.



Adults emerge from the soil in early July, feed, mate, and lay eggs. Activity is most intense over a 6 to 8 week period, after which the beetles gradually die off.



When adult Japanese Beetles emerge from the ground they have two things on their minds, eating and mating.



Individual beetles live about 60 days. Over 2 months females can lay a total of 60 eggs.

Wildflower - Winged Loosestrife

While doing some clean-up around a pond near our house, I spotted several small (3/8 inch) pink flowers near the edge of the pond. The flowers were Winged Loosestrife (Lythrum alatum), a native plant that is endangered in Connecticut.



This native plant should not be confused with Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) which is an aggressive Eurasian plant that invades wetlands and forms dense stands that exclude other species.

Wildflower - Allegheny Monkey Flower

I have been clearing some of the overgrown fields behind our house and came across a couple of patches of Allegheny Monkey Flower(Mimulus ringens).



This member of the Figwort family (Scrophulariaceae) likes damp, sunny locations, such as ditches and marshes.

Praying Mantis

We were doing some clean-up of rotten wood behind our house and found a hitchhiker on one of the pieces. Maybe he thought my green John Deere backhoe was a very large relative, but he stayed on the front-end loader bucket for some time.



While the praying mantis may look like a creature from a Sci-fi movie, some people keep them as pets.

Fawns

I had parked my truck along the driveway to our cabin and got out to take some pictures of butterflies and bees. When I returned to the truck I found these two fawns feeding within 25 feet of the other side of the truck. They continued to feed and then walked back into the brush

Geese

While I was mowing the lawn next to the cabin driveway I noticed a flock Canada Geese were checking out the newly seeded pipeline right-of-way. I was mowing with the old John Deere tractor and as with many other animals, the geese just continued to graze as I mowed.



After a meal of fresh young grass the geese took a dip in the pond and continue to watch me mow.



The geese seemed to feel at home at the pond as I waited for them to move out of my way when I finished mowing.




I returned to the cabin with my backhoe in the afternoon and found the geese had move to the pipeline route on the hill top, maybe they liked the view.


With their bellies full it was time for the geese to leave.

Turkeys

While I was preparing to do some work at our barn I notice two hen turkeys and 15 young poults in our field. The poults feeding on bugs and would form an evenly spaced line as they worked their way across the field.



When the turkeys reached the end of the field they would swing around 180 degrees and work back across another section of the field.



As the turkeys were feeding in the field, a neighborhood cat approached the field from the tall grass. The two hens immediately approached the cat and forced it to leave the field.

Storm Damage

After this summer's long dry spell a lot of us were looking for any rain we could get. We got some rain and more, high winds.

We had been in the mid-west last week visiting two of our sons and on our return trip we hit the storm in Erie, PA. As we traveled east on I-86 we followed the storm as it traveled through southern New York and watched the lightning flash in front of us as we headed east. In Corning, NY we saw trees snapped in midair and the tops thrown hundreds of feet across I-86. This damage continued to the east of Elmira. We now know the National Weather Service has officially confirmed that an EF1 tornado had touched down in Elmira.

When we arrived back in Rome we found some storm damage on Joyce Road. Brian & Tish Hopkins had a large willow tree blow over in their lawn.


Harley & Barb Kay had a tree blow across their driveway. We just had several limbs blow off trees at our barn.

Wildflower - Queen Anne's Lace

By early Summer the white umbrella-like flowers of Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) are popping up all over the fields and roadsides. Queen Anne's Lace, also known as Wild Carrot, is native to Europe and was bred to create the orange vegetable carrot we eat.



A close-up look at the flower head shows hundreds of small flowers and many small insects.

Wildflower - Jewelweed

Find any damp and partly sunny area in our neighborhood and you will most likely find Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).



This member of the Balsam family (Balsaminaceae) is native to North America and the stem juice is said to relieve itching from poison ivy and athletes foot.



This plant is also known as the "Spotted Touch-me-not" because its ripe seedpods pop open at a gentle touch.

Wildflower - Soapwort

I found some Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), also known as Bouncing Bet, growing along Joyce Road, not far from our cabin driveway.



This member of the Pink family (Caryophyllaceae) is native to Europe and gest the name Soapwort from its use as a cleaning soap.

Wildflower - Deptford Pink

I started noticing many small pink flowers growing along the pipeline access road at our cabin. At first I thought it was some run-a-way Sweet-William plants from our barn property. These plants were much smaller and the flowers weren't bunched together like the Sweet William.



I have now identified the flower as Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria), a member of the Pink family (Caryophyllaceae). This non-native plant comes from Europe and gets its name from the town of Deptford, England where the plant grew abundantly. The Sweet-William is a garden relative of the Deptford Pink. The seed for this plant may have been transported to our property during construction of the access road.