Hornets, Fraternity Brothers, and a Few Pumpkins

This week, I was reading the local forestry association newsletter.  S.O.F.A.  In it, there was a recommendation to read a book by Douglas Tallamy - it is called Bringing Nature Home.  The subject is the importance of using native species in landscaping.  Here's the link to the book.  Doug Tallamy's Book 

I recognized the name and did a little Googling.  Sure enough, it is the same guy that was my big brother in the fraternity house in college.  And we were on the swim team together. I knew that he went to graduate school in entomology.  Well, it turns out that he's now a department chair and professor at the University of Delaware.  Amazing what can happen in 40 years.  It appears that he's semi-famous and has articles, books, and lectures.  Here's one of many Youtube videos.  Doug Tallamy Talk  There are many more if you are interested.

Anyway, I exchanged email with him and he helped identify some of my weeds.  I may need him on bugs too.

 One of my regular September chores is to reclaim possession of my deer hunting stands.  They tend to get occupied by bugs, mice and birds.  As I was driving by the main field hi-rise today I looked up and noticed this.

 Bald faced hornets (really wasps).  And when I went up to look at them, they didn't take kindly to the visit.  That's quite a condominium that they have constructed.  I think we'll wait for cooler weather before dealing with that.

 Doug might appreciate some of the butterflies.  I also had a hummingbird outside the kitchen window this morning.  I wasn't quick enough with the phone.

 I have been besieged with requests to re-establish the "poop of the week" tradition.  This one was left on the edge of the driveway.  It contains hair and seeds.  I have a pretty good idea who it might be.

 This photo was about 30' away from the evidence.  I guess that when the apples start dropping, they come back.  I haven't seen a lot of them until recently.  There's another coyote in the background.

 The new orchard field food plot came in pretty well.

 There are 3 different plantings but this one has oats and other stuff.  I stuck one of my recently returned Cuddeback cameras on the edge of this field and you will see some of the photos later in this post.

Main field drive by where I spotted the hornet nest.  The chicory/clover in the foreground is great.   The tall stuff behind it is a summer annual mix with a lot of sorghum. The seed heads are huge right now and I suspect that the dove hunting would be good if I had time.

 View from the stand stairs before the hornets chased me down.

 I disked up the prairie plot (again).  I've now plowed it, disked it, sprayed it, and disked it again.

It's starting to look somewhat respectable.  I'm guessing that it will be a spring planting so I might need a cover crop this winter.

 The pumpkin plot has some issues.  I have a really good crop of pigweed.

 There are some live vines in there somewhere.

We will be visiting both T3 and Lucy/Charlie in the next couple of weeks so I harvested a few things.

I also decided to partake of the deer's apples.  I have to pick now while there's still some left.

 I got a fair sampling of both green and red apples.

 Broadleaf spraying in the clover plots this week.  I did grass spraying a couple of weeks ago.  I'm hoping to discourage the thistle which is invading some of my plots.

 Nice sunrise this morning.  I had been up for about an hour with our dog Sydney.  She's on prednisone for IBD and she either has to pee or eat all the time.

 Less turkey activity this week.  Grapes are done and seeds have sprouted.  Nice of this guy to stop by though.

 This doe appears to be on her own.

 Usually they travel in crowds.

 Sometimes with fawns in tow.

 Whoops, where's Mom?

 Usually they don't get too far from the source of the milk.

I put out another one of these protein blocks.

 It's always interesting to see what they attract.

 This one is not sure.  She found it 6 hours after it was put out.

 Let the little guy check it out.

Much activity under the apple trees but no appearances by some of the usual suspects - the beast or the mutant.

I believe that this is Captain Hook.

 New camera location on the orchard plot.

 I had the bobcat out for some trail maintenance this week.  Not sure how much good I do with it.  But there were no injuries and I got it back to the barn.

I haven't been down into the valley all summer.  I suspect that will take some work when I finally get there.  I had planned to shoot a few practice arrows this week.  Never happened.