Geek out with me about critters and plants on a mountaintop in Virginia. I’ll share what I’m learning as I try to bring native plants back on 200 acres of old farmland and tell stories from my encounters on the mountain.

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In this issue

• Exciting book news!

• Field notes: crawlers and stingers

• Signs of life: good news/bad news/good news

• Nest box update

• Recommended reading

• Questions for YOU

• The Official Mountain Poodle

BAD NATURALIST Cover Reveal…

At long last, the official book cover is here!

You might notice a few things about this cover:

First of all, it’s an abstract interpretation of the mountaintop meadow, with the Blue Ridge in the background.

Second, there is a POODLE on the cover. Yes, Cleo, the Official Mountain Poodle has officially made the book cover. Let’s hope it doesn’t go to her head!

Third, scientist Doug Tallamy, author of the bestseller Nature’s Best Hope and founder of the Homegrown National Park movement, loves my book! Right there on the cover, he calls it “self-deprecating, humorous, and thoroughly engaging.” Who, me??? [blushing]

And, finally: the book is officially available for pre-order! That means you can order it from your favorite retail site and it will be delivered to you once it’s published. Why pre-order? Basically, pre-orders are considered in “the biz” to be an early indicator of a book’s potential life in the world, and they help bookstores decide how many copies to stock.

You can PRE-ORDER HERE😊

But enough about my book!

On to the mountain…

Field notes: clingers and stingers

Some insects are good at flying; others are good at hanging on. This daredevil dropped from a tree onto my car window and hung on for about 20 miles, some of that at rather high speeds. I snapped this (blurry) photo when I stopped for gas, but by the time I reached home, my hitchhiker was gone. I can only guess that when I got stuck in a lengthy highway backup, it decided to hop onto a car that was taking the express toll lanes.

This is an ailanthus webworm moth. When I learned that the name contained the word “ailanthus,” I thought the insect must be invasive, like the ailanthus tree (aka, tree of heaven). But this moth hails from the American tropics, ranging from south Florida to Costa Rica, so it’s considered native. It’s a generalist pollinator, visiting flowers like goldenrod, and, unlike most moths, it’s active in daytime. The moth’s habitat has expanded as far north as parts of Canada—it may be adapting as temperatures warm, and possibly as ailanthus trees have spread all over the place. It’s one of only a very few insects here that can use the ailanthus tree for food and shelter. The caterpillar will eat the leaves and bark. Unfortunately, its predation doesn’t seem to kill the tree.

The moth’s usual host is the paradise tree, which has toxic properties that transfer to the caterpillar when it eats the plant, making the insect an unappetizing meal for most predators. Apparently, the moth’s tolerance for toxins extends to those produced by the ailanthus.

Hold still…

On one of my meadow rambles, I happened on a bald-faced hornet that was visiting a blackberry plant. 

Bald-faced hornets aren’t true hornets; they’re part of the yellow jacket family. They’re important pollinators, and they help control other insects—including yellow jackets. But unlike yellow jackets, which need no reason to come after me beyond noticing that I’m enjoying myself in the outdoors, bald-faced hornets aren’t aggressive unless their hive is threatened.

Unlike honey bees, one hornet can sting multiple times. And, when they need help, they summon each other by texting the group chat. Well, okay, it’s the insect version of a chat—they use an “alarm pheromone” to communicate when they sense a threat. That’s how you might suddenly find yourself being pursued by many bald-faced hornets. But I must not have been near its nest, because it didn’t perceive me as a threat (despite my phone screen inching closer and closer…). And I guess it hadn’t heard that bald-faced hornets are really yellow jackets.

Signs of Life

The good news: spice is nice

I recently discovered a plant I haven’t seen here before. Wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare) is a native plant in the mint family. This isn’t the sweet basil you use to flavor your pasta sauce. Those are in the Ocimum family. But if you’re looking for a minty or peppery kick, wild basil might be just the thing. And you can use it to make tea. (I’ve seen the flavor compared with cilantro, so if you’re a cilantro-hater, tread carefully.) The herb also has a few medicinal uses, the most amusing of which is to reduce flatulence. In case you want to discreetly slip it into someone’s salad.

The bad news: it’s baa-aack!

I’m talking about invasive mile-a-minute vine, the bane of my existence. (How many banes can one person claim to have? I could be talking about stiltgrass, which, if you have it, now is the right time to pull it, before it goes to seed in September.) Unlike stiltgrass, mile-a-minute, which I will call MAM from now on, is hard to pull. Tiny barbs run all along the stem; it sticks to everything including the plants it climbs and your hands and clothing. There’s a reason it earned the nickname “tear-thumb.”

In the meadow, it’s hard to get to the vine, with all of the overgrown, thorny vegetation surrounding it. The best thing to do is pull it up or spot-treat it as soon as you see it appear in June—if you see it. It’s pale green with small triangular leaves, and it blends in easily. If your field, like mine, will be dense and overgrown before MAM is tall enough to be visible, you’ll probably always be playing catch-up.

Back to good news: the next generation of native plants

Have you ever heard of the sandwich approach, in which you deliver bad news by hiding it between slices of good news? I’ve complained about invasives (and I could do so endlessly), and I want to leave this section on an upbeat note.

Remember the field of dogbane that was growing up in May? It’s now preparing to go to seed. Dogbane seed pods resemble green beans or pole beans. (They may look like beans, but they are decidedly not edible—every part of the dogbane plant is toxic.) In a few weeks, the pods will split open, and the seeds, attached to a bit of fluff, will be carried away on a breeze. For now, the plants are heavy with these pods.

Nest box update

On checking our nest boxes last week, I found that one of our bluebird pairs has laid a new clutch of eggs! (One of the other boxes was vacant besides the early stages of a hornet’s nest, which I removed…we apparently have no shortage of stinging insects here.)

We’re getting a kestrel box! At least, I think we are. I’ll know for sure soon, and then I’ll be able to talk about it. The American kestrel is a small raptor that is in decline in Virginia, so a lot of effort is being made to monitor the population and provide more nesting space for the birds. They like to hunt in open fields, so I’m hopeful they’ll find the mountaintop appealing.

Recommended Reading

North Woods by Daniel Mason

I just finished reading this terrific novel: historical fiction set in a house in the woods of western Massachusetts. The story follows each occupant of the house (not only the humans…) over hundreds of years, playing out through the lenses of American history and natural history. There are mysteries, star-crossed lovers, murders, and ghost stories, and it all begins with a special apple orchard. This was a guaranteed must-read for me, not only because the mountain was an apple orchard for 150 years, and I enjoyed it even more than I’d anticipated. I never do this, but as soon as I finished it, I started re-reading it in case I’d missed any of the careful and intricate connections the author wove throughout. Highly recommend. In his Washington Post review, Ron Charles calls it “a work of storytelling magic.”

What’s happening in your neck of the woods?

Tell me where you are and what you see growing—or flying or crawling— this month, in a park near where you live, or in your own yard or window box. Send me a photo, if you like.

And don’t forget to tell me about your favorite nature-related book or podcast.

Poodle sleep position #479

The best plan for dealing with an unrelenting August heat wave may be to find the coolest spot in the house and take a nap…

Now’s a good time to subscribe for more mountain discoveries, book news, and the requisite poodle photos.

Thanks for joining me on the mountain!

Until next month—

Paula W.

Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop

Coming January 7, 2025 from Timber Press/Hachette Book Group

Remember, you can…