Author Archives: makielb

This caterpillar is a Hibiscus sawfly that was happily munching on a hibiscus. A Hollyhock weevil. Milkweed lead beetles, making more beetles. The spectacular find with a wing-span of over six inches! It’s an Imperial moth (Ecles imperialis). This is only the second one that I have ever seen. The other was close to 30Continue reading “Finding an uncommon and spectacular moth”

We spent yesterday at the Eddy Discovery Center in western Washtenaw County. There’s a small prairie between the parking lot and the trail that leads to the bog. Butterfly weed and spiderwort were the dominant flowering plants there. Then we headed into the bog to find some orchids that should be blooming. Grass-pink and RoseContinue reading “More orchids and plants”

There’s a huge heat wave slowly moving across the south/south-west, but it is also extending to the east/north-east. That combined with Texas’ first case of endemic malaria (it already exists in the south-east). In south-east Michigan on Sunday we finally got the storm that was supposed to be here. The temperature cooled down but thereContinue reading “After the storm”

Some of my online friends I “talk” to more than my in person friends. Birds people watching. That’s what happens when you buy a nest from Ikea. Now on to insects – I never understood why we often get lightening bugs and moth at our lights – now I do. Gossiping insects. Trying to avoidContinue reading “Monday comics”

Time to make pickles – sweet pickles, dill pickles and picked onions. The dryer is full of dill, way more than we can use since there’s much more in the garden. If you’re in Ann Arbor and need dill let me know. The same goes for mint. The zucchini is up and doing well. GarlicContinue reading “The kitchen and garden”

It’s a hot steamy day in Ann Arbor (OK, not compared to what’s going on in Texas right now), so we went to the Farmers Market. We got lots of fresh veggies. Checked out Kerrytown, and stopped by the People’s Food Co-op. We were treated to some live music as a band was playing atContinue reading “What to do when it’s hot?”

The other day we went in search of Yellow-breasted Chats, which are rather uncommon in South-eastern Michigan in the summer. Walking to the chat habitat we saw a lot of butterflies. There were a lot of European skippers. And I managed to find two Baltimores (more on that later). We finally reached the chat habitat,Continue reading “Searching for Yellow-breasted Chats”

Liberty Plaza was full of people for the performance today. We spent the first half hour closer to the performer. Then Susan went to get us sandwiches from one of the food trucks. When she got back the main performers were playing and were way too loud. Here’s the Sonic Lunch schedule for 2023. ThisContinue reading “Our first Sonic Lunch of 2023”

We spent the morning yesterday at Sharon Mills looking for several birds – Blue Grosbeak, Grasshopper Sparrow and Bobolink. We managed to hear them all. We even saw a Red-headed Woodpecker. Essentially it was a day spent at Grasslands, and the scrub bordering them. Some other highlights included a Ringlet and a Baltimore. Both ratherContinue reading “A day with birds and bugs”

So I have been seeing what all the buzz about ChatGPT was about. It has proven to been somewhat interesting. I played around with asking it questions about things that I knew a lot about, or books. It was hit or miss with the responses, somewhere around 80% accurate. Then I asked it to writeContinue reading “Letting AI do some writing for me”