2026 High Summer

I went for a walk along the berm today. We have had a lot of rain this summer and the mosquitoes inside the forest are about as bad as I have ever experienced them. I couldn't take standing still for too long and had to keep moving.

Here is an apple tree I planted this spring in an open area of the 2011 planting area. It has prospered with all this rain as well. It is an offspring from "Blossom" the apple tree in the front lawn.

The young pine trees that have been planted on the south side of the berm that are more exposed to the road are not doing well. I think they are maybe a year or two from completely dying. There are so many pine trees dying around Ottawa and I don't know the cause. A quick google suggests White Pine Rust, but it isn't just white pines.

More rain

I visited the north side of the berm today for the first time in a few weeks and got caught in a sudden thunderstorm while wandering around checking out all the new growth. This has been a very wet spring and for about a week at the end of June there wasn't a day without a good rain. I'm sure the trees aren't complaining but I'm ready for a dry spell. In one particularly damp, mosquitoey area there is a bumper crop of buttercups flowering.

Buttercups as far as the eye can see

The timothy grass was in bloom and it was attracting some sort of fly. About half the grass stalks had their own fly hanging out on them, presumably feeding. In previous years I've noticed that this grass is very popular with the two-spotted plant bugs (one is out of focus at bottom of photo) , but I hadn't noticed these flies before.

A fly on timothy grass

Rough-fruited Cinquefoil(Sulfur Cinquefoil)

Mosquito

His sisters were busy biting me as this little male mosquito only had eyes for the goldenrod flowers.

Field Horsetail

Creeping charlie, burdock and field horsetail.

There is a fairly large colony of field horsetail growing on the north east side of the berm adjacent to the backyards of Kimdale. The mower hasn't been able to reach this steep shady slope for the past four or five years and other plants have taken the opportunity to expand and diversify the plant community of this grassy slope. Field horsetail is dead common but I have never learned the name for it until now. That is what this blog is for: to encourage me to extend my knowledge of the common plants and animals around me.

Last Monday a day long rain broke what was turning into a bit of a dry spell with the temperature rising to the high 20s for about a week. The new growth of sumac by the road was wilting from the lack of rain. The next evening it was very warm and humid when I visited the berm after dusk. The bats and fireflies came out, as did the mosquitoes. We had another good rain on Saturday and the temperatures are now considerably cooler.

Staying til Dusk

I wanted to see some bats this year so I decided to stay out on the berm this evening. It didn't get dark enough until around 9:30 and the mosquitoes kept me on the move walking around the berm area. The mosquitoes are pretty bad this year, fortunately I can tolerate being bitten as my skin doesn't react very much to mosquito bites. I noticed a few june bugs that would make a good meal for a bat. They seem to like to hover around the young maples along the edge of the 2009 planting area. I eventually saw a couple of bats swooping around and then hurried back home to get away from the mosquitoes. On the way back I spotted some fireflies hanging out in the long grass. I don't think I have noticed them in previous years so that was some reward for my patience (and blood) in staying out til dusk.