cool dry air, beautiful night sky 53 degrees F August 29, 2019

Beautiful night sky last night and tonight, morning low temp 53 degrees F today.

Pasture mowing

I have been working on mowing the pastures recently.   I hope to have the pasture mowing completed by labor day weekend.  I have a few downed trees at the pasture edges that I will work on cleaning up in the fall. 

I mowed over a couple of bald faced hornet nests and understandably they were not happy about it.  Bald faced hornets are black and white, and they make paper nests above the ground in tall pastures that have not been mowed in a while.

I had to go to the house and put on my bee suit to finish mowing the area where I encountered the bald faced hornets.  Wearing a bee suit is hot and the visibility is not very good. 

I looked them up online and found out that they are not actual hornets but they are wasps, they kill and eat flies, and I think they also kill yellow jackets, so they are considered to be beneficial.  

I can attest to the fact that they kill flies, I see them everday near the entrances of the pigeon lofts killing flies, and so far they have left me alone, not one sting yet knock on wood.

I think they might also help to keep the flies down for the horses, I noticed that the horses do not have a lot of flies this year, and the horses have chosen to hang out near the pigeon loft entrances when they have the opportunity.

Last weekend I saw two fawns in the upper pasture while mowing, they were good size, not little newborns, and they watched me for a bit from the edge of the pasture before going into the woods.  I typically try not to mow tall pastures in May or June because I'm afraid I will mow over baby fawns or wild turkeys hiding in the grass. 

A couple of years ago I hiked with the dogs through some pasture grass that was just a little over a foot high, and there was a fawn hiding in the grass about four feet from me and I did not see it.  The dogs did not detect the fawn as we walked past it, but when we got about 50 or 100 feet away one of the dogs caught the scent and doubled back and found the fawn, which then ran away.  

I seem to have a good crop of butterflies in the upper pasture, the butterflies, and other insects really like some of the wildflowers and "weeds" that are blooming now, especially a taller plant with bright yellow flowers. 

There are quite a few black swallow tails, and yellow swallow tails, and just a few monarch butterflies.  The monarchs are dark orange, with black, and white spots.

Also, there are a lot of praying mantis insects, they like the tall growth in the pasture.  

The colors of the wildflowers are quite beautiful and intense.