If You Plant It, They Will Come

... is the theme that weaves through many of this week’s submissions. Joe-pye-weed, milkweed and coneflowers are all common native plants that attract butterflies and birds. Add some wildlife attracting-plantings to your yard, and you too could be among the citizen-scientists and naturalists to be featured in this prestigious publication!

Here are my sightings this week:

Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly on joe-pye-weed in my backyard.
Birds: hairy woodpecker, northern flicker and belted kingfisher (heard) at the Saul Wildlife Preserve/Old Mill, Rose Valley; chimney swifts circling Tarbell tower on the College campus; hummingbirds (multiple locations); and my favorite, at dawn on August 10, the trill and whinny of an eastern screech owl on the 100 block of South Princeton Avenue (heard).
Painted turtles right above the Crum Creek Reservoir dam (photo online) in Nether Providence.

Julie Ellis of Swarthmore saw a carrion beetle burying a dead shrew on Harvard Avenue between Park and Rutgers Avenues. It looks like a fat firefly, and locates the decaying flesh on which it feeds by smell.
Jenn McNamara of Swarthmore submitted a photograph of a ruby-throated hummingbird feeding on pentas at her window box.
Jeannine Anckaitis and Michele Venuto, both of Swarthmore, noted that the eastern cottontail rabbits in their yards are multiplying like, um, rabbits.
Michele Venuto of Swarthmore has sighted hummingbirds in her yard for the first time in the 13 years she has resided here.
David Creagan, Kate Degnan and Michele Venuto, all of Swarthmore, testified to the effectiveness of planting milkweed to attract monarch butterflies. All submitted photographs of monarch butterflies or caterpillars on milkweeds planted in their yards, some as recently as three months ago. (Photos online.)
Laura Memeger of Swarthmore submitted a photo (online) of an American goldfinch on coneflower in her yard. Goldfinches are seed eaters, and feed on thistle, sunflowers, coneflower and other producers of oil-rich seeds.