Tag Archives: Brown Thrasher

Monthly Journal – October, 2016

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October’s journal is in two parts:  photos from the neighborhood, followed by photos of wildlife from Jekyll just after hurricane Matthew.

We’ve been seeing Monarchs in our yard all month.  One stayed and visited flowers for most of one afternoon.  This Monarch was so pristine we speculated that perhaps it had just morphed out.  There were many Monarchs on Jekyll as well, which was most encouraging.

Monarch butterfly on Georgia Aster
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Brown Thrasher
Tufted Timouse

We arrived on Jekyll on October 12, two days after the island was re-opened and five days after hurricane Matthew hit.  While the island sustained a fair amount of damage, things were in better shape than we had feared.  And we were encouraged that wildlife seemed to have made it through.  Also, very glad to see that the magnificent Live Oak in Brunswick known as Lover’s Oak, which is said to be over 900 years old, made it through as well.

Deer on the north end of Jekyll
Zebra Longwing
White Ibis
Tufted Titmouse
Sulfur and Gulf Fritillary
Tricolored Heron
Roseate Spoonbill
Roseate Spoonbill
Red-bellied Woodpecker
adult Bald Eagle
juvenile Bald eagle
Gulf Fritillaries on Bottlebrush
Osprey
Northern Parula
Monarch butterfly
Lover’s Oak – Brunswick, GA [1]
Green Darner dragonfly
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Florida Softshell Turtle on Horton Pond
Great Egret
Carolina Chickadee with signs of leucism [2]
Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills near the toll booth

References and Additional Information

[1]  Golden Isles, GA: Lover’s Oak
[2]  Wikipedia: Leucism

Break Out The Rake

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Fall!  And except for the lack of rain, the weather has been glorious.  Walk through the neighborhood and treat your visual senses to the spectacular color of our trees.

Fall Color
Fall Color
Fall Color
Fall Color
Fall Color

But once those leaves are on the ground, you’ll experience another sensory overload: the constant din of leaf blowers.  Six days a week, at all times of the day, there is the racket of a leaf blower to be heard somewhere in the neighborhood.  Just listen to this example (you might want to turn down the volume).

Here’s our pitch to reduce the auditory assault of these machines and use a rake instead.  It’s great exercise and also helps out wildlife, trees and plants.  Plus, nothing is more fun than playing in a pile of beautiful fall leaves!

Consider these points:

  • While a layer of leaves is not good for lawns, other plants and trees will thrive with undisturbed leaf litter.  If the leaves are removed, so are the nutrients that feed the plant. Lawns also benefit from a light layer of chopped leaves (the mulch setting on most lawn mowers).
  • Many beneficial insects make their home in leaf litter [1]
  • Leaf blowers don’t just blow away leaves, but they blow away topsoil as well.   They also fill the air with contaminates including toxic chemicals (used by some lawn services), allergens, molds and other things better left undisturbed. [2]
  • Leaf blowers were not invented to remove leaves, but as crop dusters.  In other words, they are a solution that went searching for a problem.  [2]
  • Leaf blowers interfere with animals’ ability to communicate with each other.  This makes it difficult to find mates, hunt and avoid predators. [3]

Now, without a leaf blower around, you can hear this:

Break out the rake.

Rake

References and Additional Information

[1]  Smithsonian:  Where Do Insects Go in the Winter?
[2]  Dr. Weil:  Ban Leafblowers
[3]  Clive Thompson: How Man-Made Noise May Be Altering Earth’s Ecology