Earth Day Musings

 

 Today is Earth Day, so I think it's a good time to share a story of an encounter I had about a year ago, that I was reminded of recently while looking at old posts on my social media. One day I was in my (hybrid) car, pulling out of my driveway, which is partly gravel, partly cement lattice block (and, full disclosure, a small section is paved, because the city required us to have a paved apron to get our C.O.), when I was waved down by a man driving up the street in a big, shiny pick-up truck. I didn't recognize the driver, but I thought he could be someone lost and looking for directions (he was, but he remains unaware of it to this day, I'm sure), or maybe one of my new neighbors whom I hadn't met yet, so I stopped and rolled down my window. The man told me that he was working in the neighborhood paving driveways, and he said that he would be happy to pave my driveway for me. I said no thanks, that I like my driveway the way it is. He looked a little shocked, and said that it would be easier to shovel snow if my driveway was paved. This is undoubtedly true (although the last couple of years this has not mattered much, and if this pattern continues it will possibly not matter at all), but I said that I didn't want a paved driveway, because it would be an ecological wasteland. He didn't understand that at all. I told him that an asphalt driveway is an impervious surface made of petroleum products. I didn't mention that it would create a heat island right next to my house that would make my house hotter in the summer, and increase the need to use energy to cool it. I may have mentioned that an asphalt driveway is ugly, I don't remember. My driveway now has moss and flowers growing on it. But I'll bet he thought it was ugly, and considered those flowers to be weeds. At any rate, he still was not convinced, and seemed like he didn't understand my arguments (and no, I don't know why I bothered to discuss it with him at all, when I could have just driven away). So, I plainly stated that a paved driveway is bad for the environment.

This is where he said something that I think he thought was a winning argument, but for the life of me I can't figure out why he thought it would be persuasive, particularly in light of what I had already said. In response to me saying that a paved driveway is bad for the environment he replied, "Lots of things are bad for the environment."

Well. He was right. Lots of things are bad for the environment. I am not even going to claim that nothing I do or buy is bad for the environment. But as an argument in favor of paving my driveway, replacing my lovely moss and flowers with impervious tar? Not convincing. 

I am not writing this to shame anyone who has a paved driveway. It's what most houses come with, and it may actually be required by a municipality–and it is easier to clear snow off of a smooth, black surface that looks neat and tidy, if not actually attractive, next to all the beige, vinyl-clad houses that make up so many suburbs. But I wish that as a society we would make it easier for people to make choices that are not bad for the environment. The idea that I had to defend my driveway (and again, I know, I didn't have to defend it), that my environmentally friendly driveway is the aberration, just upsets me. That there are HOAs that force people to use chemicals on their lawn, so that no "weeds" will grow there, and they consider anything that isn't grass a weed. That cities will fine someone who lets wildflowers grow around their house instead of having a pristine, green wasteland. That people are convinced to spend billions of dollars and waste countless gallons of water to achieve a true aberration, the American Lawn, so that corporations that make chemicals and lawn equipment can make money at the expense of not just the natural world but the people and their pets who live in those houses. That you can go to any home center and buy plants that are either invasive or treated with pesticides that are so toxic to bees that they have to be labeled so that you know you are contributing to the destruction of nature when you plant it.

It's just horrifying to have someone try to convince me to do something that is bad for the environment by dismissing that fact by just shrugging it off as just another thing that is bad for the environment. Like that's fine. Well, it's not fine with me. I am willing to make the effort to shovel my uneven driveway. I am willing to battle the invasive plants. I am willing to protect the birds, and the bees, and the other wild things around me. Apparently the man in the pick-up truck didn't see (or maybe understand) the sign next to my driveway that states that my property is certified wildlife habitat. But that is how I see my yard, including my driveway. I claim my house for myself and my husband to live in. The rest of it is where the wild things live.

Sorry for the rant. And speaking of Earth Day, I got the perfect picture today for Backyard Bug of the Day:

Mourning cloak butterfly, battered and posing on some plastic.

You can read into that what you like, but one thing it shows–nature is resilient. Mourning cloak butterflies overwinter as adults; the find somewhere sheltered in leaf litter, or a wood pile, and in the spring they are among the earliest insects you might see. They will mate and lay eggs, and the caterpillars will become butterflies later in the summer, and will in turn find a place to shelter from the cold and storms. Often the ones you see early in the spring are kind of beat-up like this–being a butterfly is not an easy life. The torn wings are likely due to escapes from birds or other creatures trying to eat them; the predator grabs the wing and a bit breaks off or tears while the butterfly gets away. Butterflies are still able to fly with some significant wing damage. The wings won't heal or grow back, but the butterfly can survive like this. They are delicate, but tough. And while the butterfly's wings won't heal, in many way nature will heal if we give it a change. Even better, if we help it. At the very least, we could try to stop hurting it...

Actually, I think we need some Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day:

A mating pair of March flies, which are called love bugs in some places. The male is the one above, with huge eyes that take up most of his head. I think that is because the males fly around searching for mates, and so they need better visual abilities. The females just hang around waiting for a male to come along...

So they have much smaller eyes, but much bigger bodies, because they have to produce eggs.

Anyway, speaking of my driveway...

I spotted my first six-spotted tiger beetle today. They are difficult to photograph, because they don't sit still for long, and they don't let me get close. I took this picture with my zoom lens, because that is what was on my camera at that point, and even with that you can see I didn't get a close-up shot. This one is on the paved part at the bottom of my driveway; usually I see them on rocks in the sunshine. 

Bee in forsythia. Also taken with the zoom lens.

The reason I had the zoom lens on the camera was to take pictures of the peach blossoms against a sunny, blue sky. I had hoped to get a shot with a bug in it, but no such luck.

It's weird for me to take pictures of bugs with the zoom lens. It saves me from having to bend down to the ground for shots like this, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of it. This is in the rock garden. The myrtle are past their peak of blooming, so it no longer looks like a glorious, purple carpet, but it's still pretty, and there are still enough flowers to attract lots of bees, of a variety of species.

After going out with my zoom lens I had to go inside and do some work, but when I was done I put my macro lens on the camera and went out to do a bug walk. It wasn't especially fruitful photographically, but I enjoyed the walk, and being outside looking for bugs.

The dandelions are coming out all over now, and the bees love those, too. There's also an ant feeding on this one, if you can spot it...

Signs of spring are everywhere...

Can you see the bug here? It's very small; I would never have seen it if it didn't move.

 

So many flowers ready to burst into bloom...

So many leaves beginning to unfurl...

Some gnats swarming over my front walk

Ants. I don't know if these are winter ants, or another species. It's still cool enough that I think they are probably winter ants.

I wanted to take my camera on my woods walk today, but I didn't have enough time for that–walks with my camera take much longer. I wished I had it, though, because there were some things I wanted to photograph with something better than my phone. Here's the pictures I took, anyway.

The weather was just right to be able to see what is going on in the large pond (often there is too much reflection from the trees and sky, because of clouds or the angle of the sun), and I was finally able to spot the salamander egg masses. It's hard to tell from the picture, but if you notice a kind of greenish cast to it, it's because there is algae growing inside the individual eggs, which is what the larval salamanders feed on before they hatch. It does look like the salamanders have developed. I don't know when they should be hatching...

Another of the egg masses.

The baby salamanders will have to be careful when they hatch, because there are other things living in that pond...

 

Today I could see quite a few tadpoles:

A couple of days ago I noticed that there are salamander egg masses in the small pond after all!:

There is a lot of algae and other weird goop in that pond, but suddenly these are visible. Probably because, unfortunately, that pond has almost dried up, in spite of all of the rain we have had this winter and spring. It hasn't rained much in the last week or so, and that pond is nearly gone. However, I can tell that the salamanders in here are developed at least a little, so these are not brand new egg sacs. But we're going to need rain in the next few weeks if they are going to survive. I only saw three egg masses, but there could be more that I didn't see.

I have decided that since this is no longer a daily blog that I can do away with my rule about only posting pictures taken the day I post, so I am going to share a couple of pictures from my walk last night. We went for a night hike last night, and that is the time to spot salamanders in the stream:

Here you can kind of see the external gills; that means, I think, that this is an immature salamander. It's pretty small. I tried to magnify it on the picture, but I've been experiencing technical difficulties. I still haven't figured out what species of salamanders these are. It would be easier if I saw an adult, but not much easier. I really need to get an amphibian field guide...

And for my last Earth Day image, a Carolina wren that likes to roost on the grapevine wreath on my porch at night. Sharing my space with the wild things: