by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member If you suffer from “Flower Deprivation Disorder” like I do between the time the leaves fall and the new ones burst forth from their buds in spring, consider planting these two shrubs/small trees: spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). You can cut winter short by two months with witch-hazel […] Continue reading "Framing Winter with Spicebush and Witch-hazel"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member I called the caterpillar “Bunny” because it reminded me of those fuzzy kids’ slippers with rabbit ears. Bunny was hanging by a strand of silk from the sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) in our front yard and it clearly needed a good home, namely a jar with fresh sycamore leaves. Bunny was […] Continue reading "The Sycamore Tussock Moth: Not Very Lucky"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member While the Eastern tent (Malacosoma americanum) caterpillars spin their webs in spring, the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) caterpillars spin their messy webs in leaves and branches of their host trees in late summer or fall. By then the webs of the tent caterpillar have broken down and disappeared, battered by […] Continue reading "Caterpillars That Spin Webs in Trees and Shrubs in Fall"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member One of the fascinating aspects of raising caterpillars is to observe their “lifestyle.” For example, the monarch caterpillar lives in the fast lane. It eats ravenously day and night for about two weeks, completing its caterpillar stage in that time and its overall metamorphosis from the day the egg is […] Continue reading "Large Tolype Is a Slow Grower among Moths"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member At our former home, over a period of several years, we lost most of our milkweed to a plant disease called Milkweed Yellows. It killed all of the Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and most of the Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). The disease is caused by […] Continue reading "My Magic Swamps"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member The closest thing to a “wilderness experience” in Southwest Michigan probably is canoeing some of our rivers and creeks. The floodplain forests along their banks provide valuable habitat for native fauna and flora. These streams are not as exciting as the white-water rivers of the West nor as spectacularly scenic […] Continue reading "Canoeing Southwest Michigan’s Waterways"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member One summer I found a couple of Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) caterpillars on a Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) by our garage and one on a Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) growing in the backyard. Spicebush is my very favorite shrub. Not only is it the caterpillar host plant for Spicebush Swallowtails, but also […] Continue reading "One Thing Leads to Another…and Another"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member Some years ago, I had quite a day in early May. First a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) landed briefly on the feeder on our deck and even came back later in the afternoon. Good sign that she might stay close-by for the summer. I will have to watch closely […] Continue reading "A Day in May to Remember!"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member One of my favorite butterfly books is an old one that my husband found for me at the Friends of the Library in Kalamazoo. Published in 1919, Butterflies Worth Knowing by Clarence M. Weed is more like a book you sit down to read rather than our present-day field guides, […] Continue reading "Heraldic Shield Colors Basis for Baltimore Checkerspot Name"
by Ilse Gebhard, KAWO member Our earliest entry for finding and identifying an American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) is in our first butterfly book, one of those Audubon Society Pocket Guides. This entry is not a happy one: “6/10/91, grill” — car grill, that is — but does remind us of the many ways our modern […] Continue reading "The Vagaries of Vanessa Butterflies"