Author Archives: Jim Sirch

Last week I found some late stage, or instar, Black Swallowtail caterpillars on my parsley plants. I couldn’t believe that I missed seeing them earlier. If you have sunny, meadow-like areas nearby, as well as gardens with flowering perennials, there a good chance you’ll see them, as these are the larvae of the most commonContinue reading “Plant Extra Parsley Next Spring”

Planting an oak tree in your yard can do more for wildlife than a perennial border of native plants. Oaks are a keystone species. They profoundly influence other species in our forests. North American oaks provide food and shelter for more species than any other tree group and form the backbone of many different forestContinue reading “Oaks Are Mighty”

Malevolent, scheming, horrid, wretched, malignant, hideous, and nasty. When you google words for spiders, these are what come up. Spiders need a good PR firm. I find the distain for spiders interesting, given that one of the most beloved children’s books of the past two generations is E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. This could be aContinue reading “Recalling Charlotte”

It’s the science of cecidology. Now there’s a Scrabble word for you! Cecidology is the study of plant galls (cecidia). What are galls? They are a kind of growth or swelling on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. When leading nature walks I am often asked about growths on leaves and stems. ManyContinue reading “You’ve Got Gall”

They can travel 3,000 miles on a migration. They can glide at an altitude of 11,000 feet. You probably know them well, but there is more to them than meets the eye. The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) can surprise you. Monarchs are naturally poisonous to predators, because the milkweeds their larvae eat contain cardiac glycosides,Continue reading “The Reigning Butterfly”

At twilight the other day, I was pleased to see a Big Brown Bat flying high among the trees in my yard. I knew that my high-flying friend was doing its bit to keep mosquitoes under control. That’s a good thing, because mosquitoes are vectors for illnesses like encephalitis and West Nile virus—diseases with seriousContinue reading “Nature’s Bug Zappers”

This very hot, dry weather we have had lately has been taxing not just for us, but for our gardens. I went out today with a hose to drip water at the base of my small, rather wilted looking Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha). I count myself lucky to have succeeded so far in growing thisContinue reading “A Curious Shrub”

July is lightning bug month. Whatever you call them—lightning bugs or fireflies—many of us have memories of going out in the early evening to catch them in a jar. Lightning bugs and fireflies are neither bugs nor flies, but a beetle from the insect family Lampridae, which in Greek aptly means “to shine.” There areContinue reading “Are They Blinking Out?”

A few days ago, I received an email from a friend asking for an identification. She had found a snake near her house and wanted to know whether it was venomous. It turned out to be a harmless Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum). When I was a child, our next door neighbor killed oneContinue reading “They Don’t Milk Cows”

Fooled again! While I was in my garden the other day, in the distance I saw a flash of wings and a tiny body bobbing in and out among the flowers. I was looking forward to seeing a Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). On closer inspection, I realized I had spotted instead a Hummingbird Clearwing MothContinue reading “Hawk Moths and Hummingbirds”