If it were not on the window screen by the deck, and I didn't happen by, I would probably never spot one of these. Aside from my dad showing us one when I was a kid, the only other time I saw one was here by the front door standing out against the white of the house--before we bought the place, I think...or shortly thereafter. I took it as a good sign...not that I believe in omens. :)
I'm thrilled to see one again (although, nothing I did attracted it...since they were around before I improved the habitat--although, I'm thrilled to be surrounded by a countryside that supports enough wildlife that it makes it to our yard). After some research, it seems they prefer the foliage of oaks and hazelnuts. We have one oak in the yard that was here when we moved in, I'm guessing it could be 20 years old or so, not sure. Since then, I've added more oaks...and I added hazelnut shrubs early on (although, at the time, I was just thinking about the nuts providing a food source, not realizing that they would be supporting various insect life as well).
Below, is a link to walking sticks in general (world-wide species, not the Northern walking stick that I believe I have. Still, some interesting facts:
Who knew! http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/invertebrates/walking-sticks.aspx (interesting information about walking stick species)
No comments:
Post a Comment