Full Moon Garbage Night
Tuesday, July 12th, 2022 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioNoticed it was a full moon out there tonight, when I went to take out the garbage.
I took a walk around the house and it was dead silent.
This cicacas may be going strong during the day, but by night, still just loner Larry doing his fast tempo distress call. But you can only hear him if you're standing out by the street.
Also no leaf tappers, or chick bugs... the percussionists. And I wonder exactly when they'll start doing their little drum rolls, and rim shots. Are they using the same calendar as the crickets?
In the back yard, only lightning bugs. And not too many, because of the flood lamp I aimed back there.
In the light of that flood lamp, I went out to visit my seelings in back. Their leaves were folded up for the night.
------------{=0=}------------
Locust trees have, and I had to look this up, pinnately compound leaves...
0--------------------0
: resembling a feather especially in having similar parts arranged on opposite sides of an axis.
Pinnate Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
0--------------------0
Pinna is a Latin word, meaning feather, wing, or fin. Basically, a lot of small, oval leaves arranged in two rows on opposite sides of the stem. Even full grown locust trees only have tiny leaves... about the size of a pinky fingernail.
There used to be a huge locust tree outside the public library, when I worked there, back in the mid-1990s, and every fall, the sidewalks and parking lot around the building would be covered in yellow-orange confetti.
But never until this week, did I know, these feather-like leaf structures fold together after dark... or even under heavy cloud cover during the day!
They fold together, and then fan open again when the sun comes back.
I also observed, earlier in the afternoon, that the fully open seedling wings, had turned to face the sun, going down in the south west.
--<>--
This was only day three for them, after their transplant. But I take it as a damn good sign that after three days, they're still opening, closing, and turning with the sun.
Clearly, they're both alive, and photosynthesizing.
And today I noticed very minute, new feathers growing off a few of them.
So, it seems they suffered no shock from the transplant. They're behaving exactly the same as their siblings back at Bella's hole, in the dog yard.
So now, the question is... once their roots outgrow the little bundle of humus they're in... will they successfully expand into the regular soil?
I guess the other thing to worry about is water. They got some rain yesterday, so I left them go today. I don't think they're gonna need a lot of help from me, with my city tap water, unless we go into a long dry spell.
------------{=0=}------------
I did spot a cricket nymph hopping around in the dry grass clippings I put over the top of the transplant plot.
Saw another, bigger cricket nymph hop out from behind the garbage bin as I rolled it away from the house, to take it out to the curb.
He looked like he could be one molt away from adulthood... with the smaller one being two molts away.
Assuming an instar is ten days long, I predict I'll start hearing crickets in real numbers by July 22nd... with a second wave joining in ten days after that, on July 32nd... Oh wait, that'd be August 1st!
--<>--
I'll be very interested to hear, over the next 20 days, how exactly the field crickets, bush crickets, and the percussion section all populate the soundscape.
But until then, it does seem like work's picked up a bit. Just landed my second handyman job of the week today.
If I could do two jobs every week, I'd be absolutely fine!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
I took a walk around the house and it was dead silent.
This cicacas may be going strong during the day, but by night, still just loner Larry doing his fast tempo distress call. But you can only hear him if you're standing out by the street.
Also no leaf tappers, or chick bugs... the percussionists. And I wonder exactly when they'll start doing their little drum rolls, and rim shots. Are they using the same calendar as the crickets?
In the back yard, only lightning bugs. And not too many, because of the flood lamp I aimed back there.
In the light of that flood lamp, I went out to visit my seelings in back. Their leaves were folded up for the night.
Locust trees have, and I had to look this up, pinnately compound leaves...
: resembling a feather especially in having similar parts arranged on opposite sides of an axis.
Pinnate Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Pinna is a Latin word, meaning feather, wing, or fin. Basically, a lot of small, oval leaves arranged in two rows on opposite sides of the stem. Even full grown locust trees only have tiny leaves... about the size of a pinky fingernail.
There used to be a huge locust tree outside the public library, when I worked there, back in the mid-1990s, and every fall, the sidewalks and parking lot around the building would be covered in yellow-orange confetti.
But never until this week, did I know, these feather-like leaf structures fold together after dark... or even under heavy cloud cover during the day!
They fold together, and then fan open again when the sun comes back.
I also observed, earlier in the afternoon, that the fully open seedling wings, had turned to face the sun, going down in the south west.
This was only day three for them, after their transplant. But I take it as a damn good sign that after three days, they're still opening, closing, and turning with the sun.
Clearly, they're both alive, and photosynthesizing.
And today I noticed very minute, new feathers growing off a few of them.
So, it seems they suffered no shock from the transplant. They're behaving exactly the same as their siblings back at Bella's hole, in the dog yard.
So now, the question is... once their roots outgrow the little bundle of humus they're in... will they successfully expand into the regular soil?
I guess the other thing to worry about is water. They got some rain yesterday, so I left them go today. I don't think they're gonna need a lot of help from me, with my city tap water, unless we go into a long dry spell.
I did spot a cricket nymph hopping around in the dry grass clippings I put over the top of the transplant plot.
Saw another, bigger cricket nymph hop out from behind the garbage bin as I rolled it away from the house, to take it out to the curb.
He looked like he could be one molt away from adulthood... with the smaller one being two molts away.
Assuming an instar is ten days long, I predict I'll start hearing crickets in real numbers by July 22nd... with a second wave joining in ten days after that, on July 32nd... Oh wait, that'd be August 1st!
I'll be very interested to hear, over the next 20 days, how exactly the field crickets, bush crickets, and the percussion section all populate the soundscape.
But until then, it does seem like work's picked up a bit. Just landed my second handyman job of the week today.
If I could do two jobs every week, I'd be absolutely fine!
°¦}
