I went out yesterday on another sodden, hazy morning not expecting to see much. The only plants blooming in the field right now are ironweed and Queen Anne’s lace--the milkweed’s long done.
But you never know. I did find some milkweed tiger moth caterpillars (Euchaetias egle)--a showy caterpillar that metamorphoses to a pretty nondescript adult moth. Years ago before the milkweed took off in the field, I tried to grow some butterfly weed (another milkweed) in my garden. It was never very happy in my shady site, and then one summer, a whole clutch of these caterpillars ate it right to the ground. Sometimes when you plant for wildlife, you get what you ask for!
Halfway down the driveway and just as I was about to turn back, a doe and fawn crossed the road and came up the hill toward me.
This fawn’s spot pattern doesn’t match that of either of the fawns I saw in July, so this is a different family.
They got pretty close before the doe finally scented me. It scared the snot out of her--she didn’t stop snorting until she got to the other side of the soybean field behind the sumac jungle!
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