Restoration and Rehabilitation
Heat and humidity or Canadian wildfire smoke air quality kept us inside for more days in the summer of 2025 than we'd prefer. This seems to be an ever increasing trend in recent years. Will it persist in the future?
 |
| Planted prairie on north side of front yard - August 2025 |
 |
| Septic field planting on south side of front yard - July 2025 |
 |
| The blue garden in the backyard - September 2025 |
It's taken years to get the "blue garden" looking decent. It's planted priamarily with native blue asters, such as Symphyotrichum laeve, S. cordifolium, and S. firmum. Deer and rabbits love asters, and we finally had to fence the perimeter. Around the outside of the fence we've planted various blue-stars (Amsonias), flax, blue-eyed grass, great blue lobelia... You get the idea. Next year should look even better.
Flora and fauna
Vertebrates
Birds: 183 species. On the evening of April 12th, while walking out to get the mail I heard a Wilson's Snipe performing its display flight above the farm field across the road.
 |
| Female Eastern Bluebird incubating eggs on April 27th in the old field north box. |
Mammals: 21 species. No additions this year.
Herps: 12 species. No additions this year.
Fish: still remains at 1 species.
Invertebrates
Butterflies: remains at 52 species.
Moths: 766 species. Added 4 species.
 |
| Macrochilo orciferalis - Bronzy Macrochilo - Hodges#8360 on September 19th. |
 |
| Prolimacodes badia - Skiff Moth on basswood in the backyard September 14th. Not a new species for us, but the first time we've found the caterpillar. |
Flies (Diptera) : 175 species. 2 species added.
 |
| Not a great photo, but it's an Ocyptamus fuscipennis at Cardinal Flower on August 25th. |
Bees/Wasps (Hymenoptera) : 150 species. 2 species added.
 |
| Female Lymeon orbus found on the windowsill after we brought in the coffee plants. |
 |
Female Leucospis affinis - Chalcidoid wasp locating host / ovipositing in the railing of our deck |
Dragonflies / Damselflies (Odonata) : 50 species. Added 2 species!
Julie saw a male Midland Clubtail (Gomphurus fraternus) in the old field in June. We're over four miles from the nearest breeding habitat!
 |
| male Green-striped Darner (Aeshna verticalis) in the old field on September 7th |
Beetles (Coleoptera) : 170 species. Added 3 species.
 |
| Ischnomera puncticollis - False Blister Beetle on April 29th. |
 |
| Mantura floridana - Flea Beetle larva leaf mine in Sheep Sorrel on May 15th. |
 |
| Firefly larva - Pyractomena borealis on November 19th. |
True Bugs (Hemiptera) : 103 species. Added 3 species.
 |
| This Issid Planthopper - Aplos simplex jumped onto my arm on October 6th. |
Other bugs : 93 species. Added 2 species.
 |
| Corrupt Barklouse - Polypsocus corruptus on September 5th |
Plants : New species included Nabalus albus [Prenanthes alba] under the big backyard oak.
We actually found this seedling shrub on a hummock in the swamp several years ago. I was pretty sure it was a Vaccinium, but not sure what species. It was potted up and it wasn't until it was large enough to plant, flower, and fruit that we were certain it was a lowbush blueberry (V. angustifolium). These are native here but probably came from a volunteer "planted " by a bird who got fruit from a garden.
An interesting find along the roadside strip of plants was a hybrid Rosinweed (Silphium integrifolium) x Compass Plant (S. laciniatum). We have both species in our front prairie and the roadside strip, although we've tried to eradicate the rosinweed because it spreads like wildfire. This plant did produce some fertile seeds.
Our updated FQA* (Floristic Quality Assessment) stats follow:
Whole property: 371 species (66% native), overall and adjusted FQI* 44.3 and 28.4
Woods: 218 species (83.9% native), FQI 47.2 and 35.7
Woods + old field: 280 species (77.1% native), FQI 46.9 and 31.6
Fungi : 169 species, with 151 of them that seem reasonably identified to species or species group.
 |
| Non-native Golden Oyster Mushroom - Pleurotus citrinopileatus on a downed cherry October 12th. These were introduced in North America from cultured kits, presumably. They are very tasty! |
___________
*In standardized botanical assessments, 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. Abundance is not figured in (thus a huge population of a rare/specialized species "counts" the same as a single plant) and species not native to Michigan always score "0", even if they are expanding their ranges into Michigan naturally, or are not invasive or habitat specific. In Michigan FQI's of greater than 35 are considered important floristically while most undeveloped land scores less than 20.
