Changes: 2014

Restoration and rehabilitation

First, our seeded prairie is coming along nicely. While we still have a fair number of lawn weeds (especially English Plantain, Sheep Sorrel, chickweed, and cinquefoil) we had less crabgrass than last year. Early successional wildflowers from the seed mix dominated: Black-eyed Susan, fleabane, Bee Balm, Purple Coneflower, and Boneset. Later in the season, some of the true prairie plants began to make an appearance: several Silphiums, including Cup Plant, Prairie Dock, and Rosinweed; grasses, as well as a couple of species of Coreopsis and interesting asters. We loved sitting on the deck watching the insects busily working all the flowers.

The seeded prairie after killing the grass and overseeding, fall 2012.

The seeded prairie late summer 2013.

Mid-summer 2014

We've seeded extensions to this prairie, as well as the septic field in the front yard. Dozens of mature prairie plants were rescued from a construction site in Plymouth; they've been planted out front and along the road.  Approximately 10% of the existing turf grass areas were planted or seeded with native plants.

We added an 11 x 16 ft pond and waterfall to our small water feature, connected by a little river. Water from the nearest downspout will travel underground into the new pond to make use of the rainwater. One of the flat rocks that crosses the "river" was salvaged from stones used to construct Fair Lane, Henry Ford's estate.

Not much planted yet, as it wasn't completed until late fall.

Nonetheless, the turkey flock came by every day to check on the progress, pick around in the mulch, and use the stepping stone over the river!

The 18-year-old Callery Pear, a non-native species we intended on getting rid of at some point even though it provided nice shade to the hot side of the house, self-destructed during a storm, as they often do. Fortunately, it happened before we had all the siding and gutters replaced, and a patio area constructed. We had it removed and will replace it in 2015 with a red maple.

Invasive species removal efforts continued, focusing on Garlic Mustard, Canada Thistle, Reed Canary Grass, small Japanese Barberries, bush honeysuckles, Autumn Olives, and Common Buckthorn. We're working to clear silver maples, small elms, etc from the wetland around the south bur oak. The opening of the canopy has encouraged cattails, cardinal flower, and other sun-loving plants to return to the wetland.


Flora and fauna

Here are the Year 2 updates and totals, with some photo highlights.

Vertebrates

Birds: 156 species, up from 144 at the end of 2013. A Great Horned Owl pair used the big stick nest in the woods, but the winter was so severe that the nest was abandoned. We lost track of the number of House Wren broods (9+) we had in our bird boxes, which also hosted a successful Tree Swallow nest, an unsuccessful Black-capped Chickadee brood, and a successful Eastern Bluebird family. Eastern Phoebes raised two broods (one was just a cowbird) in a nest on the floodlights near the bedroom window. Very nice additions to the bird list in 2014 were Hooded Warbler and Golden-winged Warbler.

The "Prairie Oaks Ecological Station" had a good full inaugural year. 235 birds of 35 species were banded, and we contributed data to a project seeking to understand which birds prey on bumblebees.

Prairie Oaks Ecological Station

Mammals: 18 species. The only new addition was Red Fox.

Herps: 11 species. The new addition was a Snapping Turtle (leisurely using the path toward the prairie!), despite our best efforts at trying to find salamanders during spring mating season. Really, there was no "early spring" this year!

Even after all the work on the house, Blue-spotted / hybrid Salamanders were found around the deck.

 Invertebrates  

Butterflies: 47 species. Most interesting was a Common "Inornate" Ringlet, a species we first documented undergoing a range expansion in southern Michigan over 10 years ago (PDF of article here). While still not common, they are found in Wayne and Washtenaw counties quite regularly now. Other good finds included Bronze Copper and Gray Comma.

 Above is a Painted Lady caterpillar on nettle.

Moths: We added 93 species in 2014, bringing our total to 299. We were confident, even with the cold spring, that we'd breach 300 this year. But, other than looking at the porch lights, we didn't do much "mothing" over the summer.  (The black light didn't come out of the garage)

UPDATE: The smaller and duller the moth, the harder to identify. We have photos of some moths we couldn't figure out, and if we think the photo should be diagnostic (to others, at any rate) we post a request for ID to the site BugGuide. And so a tiny striped moth we found on our deck in July was identified in January as the leaf litter moth Oegoconia novimundi. There you have it SPECIES #300.

One of the coolest moths this year came to our garage door light: an Imperial Moth (Eacles imperialis).

Also at the garage light was this beautiful Small-eyed Sphinx (Paonias myops).

The Golden Borer Moth (Papaipema cerina) is a species of special concern in Michigan.

Flies: 50 species, up from 33. We featured some incredible mimics of stinging insects last year, and were especially thrilled to find a species we'd been looking for for years, as well as other very interesting species.

This Spilomyia fusca is an excellent Bald-faced Hornet mimic.

This bumblebee mimic is the horrific little Deer Bot Fly (Cephenemyia phobifera). Females hover around the face of deer, and eject eggs that immediately hatch as they are shot onto the face of the deer. The larvae live primarily in the upper respiratory tracts, and are sneezed out at maturity, earning them the charming nickname "snot bot."

This funny little fly, Eurosta comma, is responsible for galls on goldenrods.

This is a new species of bee fly for us, Bombylius fulvibasoides. B. major is the species we usually see.

Bees/wasps: 56 species. We were happy to find an old friend, an undescribed wasp species we saw frequently at our Dearborn home.

One of the many look-alike potter wasps is Euodynerus species "F", an
undescribed species. Not only did we find some here, but a female made her nest in a chair on the deck..while it was occupied.

There is a whole family of wasps that provision their nests/young with spiders. Here is Auplopus architectus getting ready to take her prey to her mud nest. The spider is alive and immobilized so the wasp larvae can consume it. Most wasps sting their prey to render them helpless. Note that this genus of wasps also amputates the spider's legs!

We also found many of these galls under our Northern Red Oaks which are made by the Acorn Plum Gall Wasp (Amphibolips quercusjuglans).

Dragonflies and damselflies: 35 species. Three of the 7 new species were a little bit of a surprise: Band-winged Meadowhawk, Fawn Darner, and Black-tipped Darner.  Swamp Darners were observed ovipositing in the wet woods.

This horizontal log was one location that appeared appropriate for a female Swamp Darner to lay eggs.

Other "bugs": 121 species.  28 of these were added this year.

Always on the lookout for interesting behavior, we found Black-horned Tree Crickets doing this: Mating behavior of Oecanthus spp. begins with elaborate male courtship involving vibratory, acoustic, and olfactory signalling. The female mounts the male, with copulation occurring soon after. During courtship and after copulation the female remains mounted and is provided with male metanotal glandular secretions.

Black-horned Tree Crickets (Oecanthus nigricornis)

Unfortunately, one is a new arrival to the area and an invasive pest: the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys)

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (H. halys)

Plants
253 species growing wild (none we know or think were planted) on the whole property, with 211 in the old field and woods (the natural habitat). This was the year we wanted to really concentrate on plants, and in particular wanted to learn some of the more difficult groups: sedges, ferns, asters, and grasses. In addition to ID, we've been keeping track of all our plants on the Universal FQA [Floristic Quality Assessment] web site, which calculates many metrics in addition to keeping lovely lists.

For example, for our old field and woods, the 211 species represent 157 native and 54 non-native species. Each species is assigned a "C value" or Coefficient of Conservatism from 0-10, gauging its tolerance to disturbance and affinity for intact historical ecosystems. From this, an index is calculated. Our total "FQI" for the woods and old field stands at 37.8; in Michigan FQI's of >35 are considered important floristically while most undeveloped land scores <20.

We had to wait until the patch of irises in our wetland bloomed before we were able to identify them as the native Southern Blue Flag (Iris virginica). We transplanted some to our pond.

When a large basswood tree fell prior to our moving in on our south property line, it opened up our front wetland. This year, Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganese) came up.

We identified at least 10 species of Carex sedges (although perhaps not all correctly!). This one is an easy ID: Common Hop Sedge (C. lupulina). It is common in our west wetland.

Downy Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum pubescens). One popped up in an area cleared of buckthorn.

Fruit of the Downy Solomon's Seal (P. pubescens)

Late Horse Gentian (Triosteum perfoliatum) was the last species added to the list.  A single plant was found during our first frosty days.

Also, late in the season we were pleased to find a few individuals of a native honeysuckle.

Limber Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica)

Next year we'll be able to document further growth of the seeded prairie, continue elimination of turf grass, and document the insect diversity.