Including two photos that I’d normally be embarrassed to post on my blog. And rhubarb. Lots of rhubarb.
My blog followers all know how dependent many birds are on insects in their diet for survival so I won’t belabor the point in my narrative.
Some birds, such as this Savannah Sparrow, may seem to take that dependency to an extreme, especially during nesting season.
Habitat loss, pesticides, climate change and other factors have insect populations in a freefall, sometimes referred to as the “insect apocalypse”, and one of the evidences I see of it is the relatively sudden lack of bug guts on the windshield and grill of my pickup in recent years. It’s really been quite dramatic for maybe the last four or five years.
But this spring and early summer seem different. In a good way.
For the last several weeks my pickup windshield, grill, vanity plate and mirrors have been taking a splattering on my trips to birding locations here in northern Utah. This is what it looks like right now (photo taken yesterday) after a recent trip to remote areas in the basin of the Great Salt Lake that included freeway, highway and back roads driving.
Normally I’d be embarrassed to have my pickup seen in public looking like this but these days it’s such a novelty I don’t mind it so much. I’m sure that won’t last long so I’ll have to clean it up soon but I’m glad I took the photos as anecdotal evidence.
So, I’m really curious. Has anyone else been seeing anything similar? Locally, I’m not the only one noticing significantly more bug guts on their windshield but I’d like to know if it’s just a localized phenomenon.
I know, I’m almost certainly grasping at straws. All the bugs on my pickup appear to be the same size and color so I suspect they’re mostly the same (or similar) species of insect. Which implies a successful insect hatch that is very likely local and temporary. But these bugs aren’t the ubiquitous, even notorious, midges along the Antelope Island causeway or Bear River MBR. And even though I make similar road trips every year in the spring it’s been years since I’ve seen my pickup looking like this.
Any relevant feedback, one way or the other, would be appreciated.
OK, on to a completely unrelated subject. I can’t resist.
Thirty years ago, when I sold my house in Sugarhouse and bought this one in Murray, I transplanted two spindly rhubarb plants from my old garden to my new one. I may never have harvested rhubarb in Sugarhouse (if I did it wasn’t much) because it didn’t do well there at all. I anticipated the same results in Murray but hoping for a miracle I transplanted them anyway.
This cell phone photo of the same two rhubarb plants was taken late yesterday afternoon. I have rhubarb coming out of my ears and I have ever since I transplanted them. And this photo was taken after I harvested some yesterday or the plants would have been even bushier. (Yes, I do wear white socks with my Birkenstocks, thanks for asking…)
Other than watering them, a very occasional dose of fertilizer and cutting off the flower stalks when they emerge (to keep them from bolting) I’ve completely ignored them. I’ve never even divided them, other than to give an occasional very small division to family and friends. But even my sister Sheila in Colorado, who got several of those cuttings, has had little to no success with them.
So yesterday, using an old family recipe handed down from my mother, to Sheila and then to me, I made rhubarb cobbler and last night we had it for dessert.
Hot, with vanilla ice cream on top – to die for.
Ron
I’m late seeing this so IDK if you’ll see it now, but I found it interesting that I had lots of bug guts on my windshield on my trip between Vegas and Utah (it was hot!), hardly any on the trip home 5 days later (low 40s leaving Ogden for quite a distance south). Also watched a song sparrow eating bugs off the grille of a vehicle parked in downtown Ogden, something I hadn’t seen in years!
I noticed the lack of insects, even in the marshes of Wisconsin, about 2015. It was also true in the Illinois cornfields. This spring I have noticed more bugs splattered on my vehicle, too, but have not paid any attention to what they are. It is a variety, though.
It was good to see you in person today!
If you need to get rid of some rhubarb, I would be happy to oblige. I have several recipes that I am craving – roasted rhubarb and beet salad, rhubarb and cherry compote (the juice of which makes a wonderful cocktail) and plain old rhubarb sauce which I love poured over ice cream with shavings of fresh ginger.
Last trip returning from St George via back roads my car got very buggy, we also noticed the large numbers of white butterflies. Gas prices have been keeping me home otherwise so I don’t know how buggy my usual areas are I travel for photos. You said your property was farmland before development. Years of good soil practices must be in your favor for the rhubarb transplants.
My wife, who came from Denmark, loves rhubarb. It grows like crazy in the little farm town where she grew up. She loves to make this sort of topping with it and have it on her pancakes.
As for insects, not seen any increase lately. In fact it has been years since we have seen any Kestrels in our area. One seems related to the other. Suspect less open space and pesticides are the root cause.
PS
Socks with Birkenstocks? There’s a problem with that?
Not if you ask me there isn’t. The birds don’t care if it’s a fashion faux pas so I don’t either. Not one bit.
The sparrow appears to be dining on Mayflies…what else?! They do tend to emerge in hordes but for a limited time around…when? Typically May. Not too surprising that that’s what one of your local birds is chowing on these days. Gotta get ’em while they last (which won’t be long).
It also appears Mayfly remains could be what’s on your truck.
As a bird lover this might make you feel better about that mess. I attended an ag university. Outside one of my labs was the parking area for one of the ag department’s field work vehicles. In the spring and summer–when those pick-ups and cars would re-appear in the parking lot after a long day out in the fields the birds–particularly jays–would mob the grills harvesting the road kill. They seemed especially fond of the sulphur butterfly remains and cabbage looper parts.
Ah, rhubarb. I spent half of my youth in Southwestern Iowa where a half acre vacant lot parcel next to one of our homes was half rhubarb and half asparagus. Nobody tended it but many in the neighborhood harvested from it. My aunt made the best rhubarb pies so I have a strong preference for it…straight. As kids we’d even break it off and suck on the raw stems. I’ve been nursing along a few plants in my California Central Valley yard for years with only limited luck. So I admire your success with them. For a long time I only made an occasional rhubarb crisp with what little I dared harvest from my anemic plants sometimes supplemented with a few stems from the produce aisle. But I pined so many years for my Aunt Lois’s pie the nagging urge eventually prodded me into baking some proper ones…though my pie crusts remain a work in progress and I still have to limit my harvests.
Jim, I wondered if it could have been Mayflies but on that trip (those trips) I was never near a stream so I dismissed it as a possibility. Maybe I shouldn’t have?
The sparrow photos were taken years ago in Montana in an area where mayflies would almost be expected.
I used to make the occasional home-made pie crust for fruit and meat pies but mine were never any better than store-bought crusts so I go that route now. Home-made pie crusts are a lot of work.
Well, there would need to be a body of water somewhere nearby for it to be a true swarm of Mayflies you massacred…so maybe those are something else. Tough to tell much from the remains even with the image somewhat enlarged.
I mistakenly assumed the sparrow photos were from the same outing.
The pickup photos were taken with my cell phone so there’d be little detail, even at full resolution with enlargement.
One of the small planting beds in our downtown sidewalks (Ellensburg, WA) grows rhubarb – it is the strangest looking thing when it first pops up out of the ground – like some alien brain. The maintenance people don’t let it grow very big, but it’s pretty neat to see in the spring. Your plants are beautiful!
Carolyn, you’ve described what it looks like well when it first emerges from the ground. And it comes out VERY early in the spring.
My husband I drove from Santa Rosa, CA to Yellowstone N.P. a week ago. We arrived at Yellowstone with a window liberally covered with bug splat. In recent years I have not seen this at all. So, happy news for the birds!
Glad, very glad, to hear it Buff. Thanks for reporting.
We no longer do many country drives, so I haven’t noticed diminished bug splatters. I will have to pay more attention.
Rhubarb is always known as thumb in my family after my middle brother’s mishap when preparing it. And thumb and custard is one of my favourite desserts.
I’ve said it before, EC – your comments often crack me up. Your last couple of sentences are an example. I’ve read them three times and enjoyed them more each time.
Hi Ron, my car has been littered with insect roadkill on my travels back and forth to the AZ mountains. Nice to see all those bugs! LOVE rhubarb and would LOVE to have your family recipe. If you’re willing to share please email to me. We’ve discussed the sock situation before ….. nothing more to say about that!!
Kathleen, if I can find the time to type it up I’ll email the recipe to you.
❤️
Recipe sent.
Good Morning Ron. Love the pictures posted. Not many insects around my area, still getting snow on the ground. I have to laugh every time some one shows pictures of rhubarb. Years ago my brother was doing some work on a ranch. There were friends of my dad who owned the place. Randy was told to cut down the burdock plants around the yard. You guessed it he cut the Mrs rhubarb plants down! I don’t like to eat rhubarb in anything. Have a good day.
Wow, I’ll bet that ranch lady wasn’t happy with Randy! At least rhubarb is perennial so they should have come back the following year. Unless he dug them out…
Barbara and I were commenting about the lack of insects just the other day. Unfortunately, we still see mostly clean windshields after a trip. Admittedly, we have not done a longer trip in the last couple of weeks but our last trip to Portland 3 weeks ago (115 miles each way) left us with a clean windshield. I keep hoping that will change but these last few years have not been good.
Thanks for the report, Dan. I wish you a buggier windshield, and soon!
In Southern California we have seen an alarming decrease in many insects. Would you consider sharing the cobbler recipe? It sounds amazing.
Kim, if I can find the time to get the recipe typed up I’ll email it to you.
Recipe sent.
I have not seen an uptick in bugs or bug splats around my home in the Wasatch not far from you. I have noticed recently that they have started appearing this year for the normal spring appearance. I live about 1000’ higher than you do so it is relatively normal for me to start noticing them again later than you – we are still getting freezing nights up here. In my conservation work in the San Rafael Swell in the last few weeks we did have a plague of no-see-ums but it was a normal amount for the time of year.
Art, I’m extremely jealous of all the time you apparently spend in The Swell. I love that area, at least I used to until it started to get more crowded.
On a 400 mile round trip across the North Cascades the last week of April there weren’t but a few bug splats. That may have been due to the cold and wet spring weather. Lots of bumblebees and other pollinators in my yard though here in Blaine, which is good to see; mosquitoes, not so much.
I have a three year old rhubarb that I haven’t harvested any stalks from. Not as big as yours, but maybe in a couple of years. I did let it go to flower this year. Impressive display. Rather worth sacrificing any stalks to eat. You reminded me I need to sow the amaranth seeds I ordered last year.
Lyle, my amaranth comes up every year as volunteers, lots of them, so I just leave the ones I want (it doesn’t take very many) and till the rest in.
Good luck with yours this year. Remember, they like plenty of sun.
Good observation Ron and a good question. Had not thought of it, but definitely seeing fewer bugs on the windshield. See tons of earwigs out back that the lizards eat and of course the foraging Spotted Towhees consume as well. We have high winds all spring here in Prescott that I think keep the insect population lower than in some areas, but I think they will increase quite a bit once the winds subside.
Love rhubarb pie, but don’t think I have ever had the cobbler. If I lived in your area I would invite myself over to share that with you.
Ditto with Cheryl regarding the morning posts.
Thanks for that report, Everett. I don’t see earwigs very often but we do have them.
I’ve run through a couple of bug clouds on the highway but so far it’s been more of them rising off the creek – swallows are returning so they’ll take care of that. Seems to be more a late summer thing here – crickets and grasshoppers.
Rhubarb either likes where it’s at or as it doesn’t as I’ve discovered in the yard! Rhubarb cobbler sounds yummy with, of course, ice cream….. 🙂 I have no need to “adulterate” it with other things for the most part… 😉 Growing up we had half a city lot of rhubarb which my dad made wine out of. 😉
Judy, I have strong memories of all the grasshoppers on the MT farm in late summer and early fall during harvest. They were LOUD and many were huge.
During that time of year I didn’t dare rest my arm above the open window of a fast-moving vehicle because if a grasshopper hit it it really really hurt!
Yep – they sure do let you know you’ve been hit! 😉
Two weeks ago I birded & photographed in the Big Bend Gulf Coast region of Florida. This is a different Florida. No beaches just marsh & river delta habitat along the shallow coastline from the panhandle to just north of Tampa Bay. Very little development for this reason as well as historically it was too ‘buggy’ to be comfortable. The bugs, including Love Bugs, have all but disappeared. My personal guage is the same as yours. The front of my truck. In the seventies you needed to carry a gallon or two of cleaner & a squeegee to drive the 100 miles along the coast. Unfortunately, this trip there was no uptake in bug juice to clean. Also, the eBird count for the grassland & dry prairie (another feature of west central Florida) species continues to be way down. For example, the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow population that rely on the dry prairies is critically endangered.
Thanks for the detailed report, Steve. I’d wished for better news on the insect front but realistically I didn’t expect it.
Rhubarb alone is not something I’ve had. With strawberries, yes.
That sparrow is a great insect hunter. 🙂
I usually prefer it with strawberries too, Arwen. But not in cobbler.
YUM! Rhubarb, that is, not the bugs, for dessert…..on a recent trip to the
Capitol Reef area, there were many more insects plastering the windshield than I’ve seen for several years. Wondering if that tree you had removed was formerly shading the nook where your rhubarb is now flourishing ?
Kris, my rhubarb in this garden grew just as well when the tree was there as it has since I had it removed.
Good to know about your insect experience on your trip to Capitol Reef.
Rhubarb! It doesn’t grow down here on the Texas coast, and just seeing those plants set me drooling. Strawberry-rhubarb pie and jams were staples of my childhood, as well as using those leaves as hats and fairy shelters.
Oddly, I’ve seen far fewer love bugs than usual this year, but that could be a matter of timing. Last year, I had to stop to wash my windshield off five times in a 150 mile trip, they were so numerous. What have appeared this year are huge flights of crane flies and more than the usual number of butterflies of various sorts. That’s been pure pleasure.
Shoreacres, I’ve heard a lot about love bugs but never seen them.
Good news about crane flies and butterflies. Blog follower Dick Harlow would be very jealous of all of your butterflies.
I thoroughly enjoyable set of recollections, I love having photographs of you and your rhubarb, and the report on the pie! I want rhubarb pie!
Alison, when it comes to pie with rhubarb in it I prefer it mixed with strawberries. But with cobbler I’ll take my rhubarb naked…
Enjoyed this post and happy to see a photo of you!!! Ya look pretty good for an old fart. I have to say though that the subjects of bugs and rhubarb are two of my least favorite things.
Old fart indeed!
You just might change your mind about rhubarb if you tasted that cobbler.
Yes, actually, we have noticed a few more insects on our cars on two road trips this spring. Oklahoma to Carson City NV, and OK to northern WI. Fingers crossed!
And thank you for the stories to go along with the photos. Take care of yourself, we all need your contributions in our inboxes in the mornings!
Thanks for that feedback, Cheryl. It should be interesting to see if it fits with the experience of other readers. Or not.
And I appreciate what you said in your last paragraph.