Fence Repairs

Along one mile of my property line is a fence that has been in place for close to 50 years.  The effective lifespan for a fence expected to contain livestock is 20 years.  Since my neighbor and I neither have livestock, the fence needs only to serve as a visual indicator of where the two properties join.  This fence is primarily bordered by woodland.  The combination of falling trees and deteriorating posts results in a fence that sags and at times lays flat on the ground.

The fence wire is rusty, but is still strong and functional.  I periodically select a section of fence where I will splice broken wire and replace non-functional posts.  This year I chose an 1100 foot stretch and spent five days cutting and setting posts, cleaning obstructions from the fence line and attaching the fence to the new posts.

Posts are cut from cedars in the woodland that died long ago from lack of sunlight and have stood long enough since death to lose their outer coating of bark and sapwood.  A typical tree will give three eight foot posts with diameters ranging from eight inches at the base to four inches at the top.  The red inner wood of these posts is rot resistant enough to survive for many more decades.  Notched poles are used to hold broken posts in place until I’m ready to attach the fence to the new posts.

My primary fence building tools are the spade, spud bar, and posthole digger.  The star of the show, and the tool I would most like to leave in the barn, is the 18 pound spud bar.  The chiseled end is used to break up rock encountered while digging postholes and the flattened end is used to tamp in the earth used to fill the holes after post placement. 

This is a common sight in most of the postholes.  Shallow bedrock is responsible for the conditions that allow such a diversity of rare and unusual life to exist at Blue Jay Barrens.  I remind myself of that fact as I chisel away at the rock with my spud bar.

My work is helped along somewhat by the condition of that rock.  The meteor that hit this site 350 million years ago fractured, and in some cases pulverized, the bedrock.  Much of the time, I’m able to break out chunks of rock by applying pressure to already existing cracks.  There are times though that the spud bar rebounds from the rock with the sound of a clear chime and I know that I’ve found a bit of rock that is both massive and unbreakable.

Even when it does break apart, dealing with rock is tedious and time consuming.  Sometimes I accumulate a nice pile of rocks.

In some locations the limestone bedrock occurs in thin beds sandwiched between clay.  These beds, usually an inch or less thick, eventually yield to the spud bar.  Getting the first break in each layer is the hard part.  After breaking through, it’s fairly easy to chisel an opening large enough to accommodate a post.

The most uncommon experience is to encounter no rock at all.  This was my only rock free posthole.  It just served to remind me of how quickly I can set a post when I don’t have to deal with rock.  That made the rock filled holes that much more aggravating.

The fence isn’t pretty, but at least it’s recognizable as a fence.

I’m pretty good about staying on task while I’m out working, but occasionally I’ll take some time to look at nearby things of interest.  I was wondering why there always seemed to be a shaft of sunlight breaking through the tree canopy at just the place I was working, when I noticed the chewed condition of these Prickly Ash leaves.

It didn’t take long to find the cause of the chewed leaves, the caterpillar of the Giant Swallowtail butterfly.  This is one of those bird poop mimics and its camouflage is quite effective.

I had to pull the branch down in order to photograph this guy and in the process, I annoyed it enough that it displayed its red osmeterium.  The osmeterium is a defensive mechanism designed to discourage predators not put off the bird poop appearance.

I also found several clumps of Indian Pipe just beginning to emerge.  Indian Pipe is a saprophytic plant that lacks chlorophyll and harvests its energy from decomposing organic matter.

I had my own fan club of Hackberry Butterflies.  These butterflies love to lap up sweat and I sweat enough to support legions of these guys.  Most of the butterflies were going for my back and shoulders, but a few found that I had imparted enough sweat to my tools to make them a convenient place for a drink.  Though they seemed to have abundant energy, none of the butterflies helped with the fence building in any way. 

More Satyrs

I tried an early morning excursion in an attempt to photograph some Carolina Satyrs while they were in a more sluggish condition.  I guess all of the small Satyrs were so sluggish they weren’t moving at all.  I didn’t find the first one until things had warmed considerably and the butterflies were acting in their typical wary manner.  I did get a couple of shots of the two larger species of the Satyr group found at Blue Jay Barrens.  This is a Northern Pearly Eye, a rapid flier that normally perches on tree trunks

The Common Wood Nymph is the second of the larger Satyr species.  This butterfly is very common and can be found in a variety of habitats, but I tend to find it in the shadow of trees.

It normally perches near or on the ground.  With the forewing eyespot hidden from view, the butterfly is almost impossible to see.

A couple of days ago I watched a large Robber Fly chase after a passing Common Wood Nymph.  No capture was made and I thought a butterfly of that size would be quite a lot for the fly to manage.  I changed my mind when I found this Robber Fly hanging on to its captured Common Wood Nymph.

The fly has inserted its piercing mouth parts into the body of the butterfly and is busy guzzling down the soft insides. 

 

While I was busy trying to overcome my problem of getting near enough to a Carolina Satyr for a good picture, this Hackberry Butterfly presented me with an opposite problem.  I had trouble getting this guy to back off far enough for me to get a shot.  It first landed on my face and then dropped down to my neck.  Eventually I got it to move onto my arm where it sat calmly drinking sweat. 

The Hackberry Butterfly can sometimes become a nuisance.  In cases where they don’t find enough sweat, I’ve seen these butterflies probe ears, eyes, nose and mouth in an attempt to find some tasty liquid.  I guess I’m luck I always seem to have plenty of sweat to offer.

Butterflies on Rotting Fruit

When I was in the fifth grade, I was intrigued by butterflies that didn’t seem to ever visit flowers. A neighbor cut some limbs from a tree beside his house and I noticed a swarm of brown butterflies sitting on the sappy stumps. I crawled through the bushes, peeked out at the tree and got my first look at a Question Mark Butterfly. It was a most incredible sight. After chasing me out of the shrubbery several times, the neighbor finally asked me what I was doing. When I explained about the butterflies, he brought out a couple of lawn chairs and we sat quietly watching butterflies drink sap. He also made me promise to stay on the lawn and out of the landscaping.

I was reminded of my youthful adventures when I saw Question Marks feeding on some rotten bananas in the yard. Rotting fruit is a great attractant for many species of butterflies. Question Marks are normally quick to take flight, but an attractive food source makes them less wary.

Several days ago, I put out a bucket of old bananas and apples in order to attract flies to feed to some baby lizards. Opossums and skunks tipped the bucket and scattered the fruit around. Eventually, the fruit got rotten enough that the mammals stopped messing with it. That’s when the butterflies began to take notice. This particular Red-spotted Purple, recognizable by its tattered wing margins, has been here for three days straight. I just wonder if it’s taking time out to mate and get another brood going for next year.

I’ve read about animals getting intoxicated by consuming fermenting fruit. These butterflies might be finding a little hard cider at the center of the rotting apples. They sometimes exhibit some awkward behavior and I watched one fall off its apple.

Red Admirals seem to prefer the nectar of the banana. The skins may be a little bit skunk chewed, but they produce some good tasting juice.

The Hackberry Butterflies seem the most susceptible to the effects of alcohol. This one seems to have temporarily forgotten how to recoil its proboscis. I believe it's the butterfly version of getting stupid.

I hope I haven’t caused these butterflies to become deadbeat members of their species. I know this has been a great year for butterflies, at least here, but we still need every butterfly out there doing its part to make next year even greater.