Nature Among Us

09/16/2024

This page spends more time on the life we can find within our habitat gardens, but I do want to provide a bit of design inspiration from time to time. I’ll expand upon the design considerations of this space at a later date, but for now here are a few images as we are transitioning into fall.

Briefly, we planted thousands of plugs of plants from Midwest Natives Nursery and filled in other areas with many many pounds of seed from Prairie Legacy Inc.-Native plants and seed. This area was converted from a turf grass lawn. It is incredibly walkable, sittable, and playable, and it supports tremendous diversity.

09/08/2024

Why are bees green?

https://www.natureamongus.com/post/why-are-some-bees-green

A bit of a Sunday afternoon musing.

Some tiny sweat bees are a beautiful metallic green. But why are they green?

09/07/2024

We are big fans of Pam Ohnemous and her wonderful prairie paintings. Her work helps connect our small pockets of prairie outside to our living space inside. The paintings are so evocative of real prairie scenes that this jumping spider took up residence, presumably waiting to prey on an unsuspecting pollinator.

09/02/2024

Fantastic list of nature areas to visit around Lincoln/Omaha by the Platte Basin Timelapse group:

PLACES TO GO Find places to visit and things to do outdoors near Lincoln, NE. Check back as we expand to add more locations throughout the Platte Basin! Place to Go Map-2 Search as I move the map Recreational Activities Recreational Activities Recreational Activities Bluestem Wildlife Management Are...

08/25/2024

It has been a busy year. For those who don’t know, we moved down the road to Lincoln in May. We have been “getting to know the new neighbors”, so to speak (which, from my perspective refers to all of the creatures living on our new property). I hope you enjoy this collection of photos from our first few months here. 

It has been a busy year. Career changes, moving, adapting. It all results in less available time to meander through the native gardens and interact with the tiny inhabitants. Less time to take photos. Less time to support local habitat garden projects. That said, we have been the recipients of incre...

07/01/2024

In her podcast, Stephanie Barelman tells listeners everything they want to know about native plants, from how they look, how they grow and what she likes about them.

06/09/2024

It only took one week after moving in for the door-to-door exterminator to visit with promises of blissful insect-free summer living. He would probably have seen the mass of caterpillars on the patch of sunflowers as an insidious infestation. Of course, the caterpillars that survive predation from the nesting wrens and redwing blackbirds will go on to emerge as beautiful orange and black checkerspot butterflies. Meanwhile, the large patch of sunflowers will be just fine, and the blooms will be filled with Melissodes bees come August. Thankfully, Rachel dismissed Mr. Exterminator’s advances and our yard can continue to improve and foster more life.

06/09/2024

I noticed my most recent folder of uploaded photos on my computer was dated October 2023, which triggered Alabama’s “I’m in a Hurry” to play in my head.

It was nice to take a breather and simply admire a katydid for a few moments.

11/21/2023

Ants have long been the subject of amateur naturalists and scientists, with perhaps no behavior more intriguing than the “farming” of aphids. 🐜

Read "Protecting the Flock – Ants and Aphids": https://brnw.ch/21wEBBC

📝&📷: Tyler Moore, Bellevue University

10/29/2023

An ode to the end of insect season.

Summer has its own pace. It is frantic, it is fleeting. Insects seem cognizant of the short window for gathering resources and reproducing. As observers and habitat caretakers, we may or may not have that same cognition. My mood changes when I feel the first chilly breeze of late summer. I become aw...

10/29/2023

https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2023/10/ants-and-aphids/

Ants have been shown to raise aphids in order to harvest their sugar-rich waste secretions known as honeydew.