Tonight, they’re calling for frost – hopefully the last frost – in cold spots.

/in , /by
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Uh oh. Found an LDD, formerly gypsy moth, caterpillar in the blueberry patch. Northwestern Vermont has been slammed this year and next year it could be us, in east central Vermont. Keep an eye out for the egg masses, often low on tree bark. They can be scraped off.
The hummingbird clearwing moth and the snowberry clearwing moth both look and act like little hummingbirds. Uncommon enough to be an exciting find, but common enough to be seen most years. I can’t tell the two species apart (both in the genus Hemaris) but that’s ok with me for now.
A lot of things are described as “growing like a weed.” In our garden the weeds really take it to heart.
Hummingbirds have been reported in the past few days not far from where I live. They typically arrive here around May 15th. It’s been a bit colder than normal here in the past month, making a person wonder what’s up.
Hummingbirds can distinguish many more colors than humans. Not just ultraviolet, but ultraviolet+green, ultraviolet+red, and ultraviolet+yellow. Researchers spent three summers deploying sugar of various hues to discover this. We are “color-blind compared to birds” according to one of the scientists. And, according to me, it’s good to clean out the hummingbird feeder before it gets moldy.
Both male and female downy and hairy woodpeckers are supposed to begin their territorial drumming around this time, now that the days are getting longer. But some have been heard practicing over the past couple of weeks.
Nice warm weather has gotten carpenter ant queens up and about. Lots of winged females looking to start a new colony in any rotting wood that’s lying around.
Thick bushes are a good place to house the short-tailed fledglings that are still being fed. Not sure why short tails make birds look so cute, but they do.