There are so many weeds that I didn’t know what to work on first. I pulled some of the Wild Parsnip out of the wetland, and finished pulling the St. John’s Wort and some of the Sweet Clover out of the upper prairies. It’s a lot of work! Fortunately the weather was beautiful ­- sunny and in the mid-70s. But it was still hot in the sun.
The birds are all back at the feeders ­ the Grosbeaks and Orioles and woodpeckers are all bringing their babies. The Hairy Woodpecker babies are bigger than their parents, and are very loud.

We found lots of caterpillars on the nettles in 3 Finger Valley. I think they’re either Milbert’s Tortoiseshell or Red Admiral caterpillars. There are so many that they cover all the leaves in some places – it looks like all the leaves are black.
Here’s one pile of caterpillars on a leaf.

There are still plenty of butterflies on the driveway – I saw several Mourning Cloaks – for the first time since the early spring.

Mike tried digging in the Frog Pond, and the powertrac doesn’t have any trouble getting through the clay at the bottom of the pond. Later in the summer we’ll try digging out some of the dirt, laying down some plastic, and covering it with dirt. Hopefully we’ll be able to make a pond that will stay wet all summer.