Gray and still

Except for the surface of the water and the honking of passing geese. Now the clouds have broken and we have sun and gulls. But, not for long. Sigh. The sun was in and out all morning but it is warm.

Then the afternoon turned lovely just as I went to hear Doug Tallamy speak on landscaping with native plants. He says that biodiversity means redundancy - a healthy ecosystem has several species for each task. Ecosystems are responsible for making oxygen and sequestering CO2, holding soil and moderating weather. He mentioned Louv's theory of nature-deficit disorder. Plants determine the carrying capacity of the place where they grow. Almost all birds depend on insects to feed nestlings even if they winter on seeds or berries, so a landscape that doesn't support bugs doesn't get nesting birds. And native plants support far more insects because they've co-evolved the plant's chemical defenses and the bug's digestion. He noted that domesticated food plants have often been bred out of their defenses in order to taste better, which is why they are more vulnerable to bugs. Also, many species of birds and plants rely on leaf letter, preferring it to mulch.

On the way out of the lecture, I saw wasps and a ladybug! At home a bumblebee was working on the rosemary. And an osprey passed overhead. The earliest of the oak trees is beginning to bloom.