Always Heed a Kingfisher’s Warning…. And other cautionary tales
When Rebecca and I were
first looking at land to buy in Akron, Ohio, we considered two pairs of lots –
one on E Lods Street (no doubt a corruption of the Polish city of Lodz) and one
on N Maple Street. Her relatives had settled in both neighborhoods in the early
and middle parts of the 20th century, and we liked the idea of
making those roots real. The City of Akron had made lots available to buy on
both these streets. We ultimately
chose the N Maple St. site, in part because two kingfishers admonished us
severely when we stood on Lods, warning us away. When we looked at the N Maple
lots, two kingfishers buzzed us but didn’t comment. Thanks for clarifying our decision!
 |
| Belted Kingfisher |
I have learned that kingfishers
have a lot to say, and like my mother – who was the crankiest of Virgos – they
are usually saying to me something like “Oh
for gods sake you had better not …”
The times I’ve ignored a
kingfisher’s warning there has been hell to pay, for example, a kayak trip that
turned unexpectedly perilous, with bad water, bad weather and a rescue
(thankfully not me!).
So the site of our straw
bale homes on N Maple St. is a short cul-de-sac that abuts the Erie Canal
towpath, a 100-mile wooded walkway along the Cuyahoga River. The closet
naturalist in me is thrilled: I am
surrounded by the delightful Babel of birdsong and insect calls, and I get to
run around with my butterfly net. (Hmm, perhaps I’m not so in the closet!) It
turns out that butterfly nets are rather hard to wield and I am out of
practice, having last used one when I was about 9.
There are kingfishers just
down the street, hanging out on the river. There are at least two pairs of nesting orioles across from
my house, outfitted in an almost day-glo orange. Just last week, I heard an outburst of sudden warning calls
from songbirds; I looked up, thinking a raptor was nearby. Well, it was Chessie, as I like to call
Chesapeake, Akron’s own downtown peregrine falcon, as she zoomed past.
(Chessie, after all, was the name of my first cat.) Of course, it could have been McKinley, Chessie’s newest
mate since her long time partner Bandit died in February. You gotta
love a city that names its resident falcons!
Back to my butterfly net
and my ungainly pirouetting across the construction site to catch butterflies. Today’s catch and release netted a pale
yellow Clouded Sulfur, and very manic small black butterfly that might have
been a Northern Cloudywing, but I’m not sure since it escaped my net several
times before I could get a good look.
I knew Akron was the place
for me when I discovered that there are Sphinx moths here, those beautiful
giant daytime moths in art deco designs that fly around flower gardens like
hummingbirds, slurping up nectar with their huge proboscises. God I love them! Just couple of weeks
ago I thought I saw one enjoying some water that had collected on the ground
from my endless task of washing out earth plaster buckets. The moth was big and
black with striking orange markings on its abdomen. Hmm, not a sphinx moth after all but who was this handsome
creature, I wondered?
 |
| Peach Borer Moth |
It turned out to be a
peach tree borer, a clearwing moth that is considered to be a “wasp mimic.” Its
larvae are terribly destructive, and bore into peach trees, unfortunately for
our friends across the street who have quite an array of stone fruit trees
growing up.
And oh, the wolf
spiders! Really long–legged.
They’re everywhere: on the walls of my almost finished house, enjoying the cool
plaster, and hanging out in the pile of empty buckets outside. The homeopath in me has my milk sugar
at the ready – I don’t think this is a remedy yet but soon it will be!
