![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/savannah-sparrow-5932b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"savannah-sparrow-5932b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nIncluding two photos that I’d normally be embarrassed to post on my blog. And rhubarb. Lots of rhubarb.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/savannah-sparrow-5924-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"savannah-sparrow-5924-ron-dudley\\"")
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Some birds, such as this Savannah Sparrow, may seem to take that dependency to an extreme, especially during nesting season.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But this spring and early summer seem different. In a good way.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/bugs-on-front-of-pickup.jpg\")
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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.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/bugs-on-front-of-pickup-closeup.jpg\")
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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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Any relevant feedback, one way or the other, would be appreciated.<\/p>\n
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OK, on to a completely unrelated subject. I can’t resist.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/rhubarb-2.jpg\")
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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…)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Hot, with vanilla ice cream on top – to die for.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Including two photos that I’d normally be embarrassed to post on my blog. And rhubarb. Lots of rhubarb.<\/p>\n