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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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shield bugs

September 18, 2018 by Dave Bonta

The sun comes out. A green shield bug flies in and lands on a porch column like a freelance leaf. I’m reminded to check when the equinox is.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags shield bugs
September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 by Dave Bonta

A shield bug on the railing is nearly immobilized by the cold, except for a slow, vaguely apotropaic waving of its antennae when I approach.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags shield bugs 2 Comments
August 21, 2011 by Dave Bonta

A dark shield bug’s luminous green underside imparts a faint glow to its patch of column. Its antennae tremble violently when I draw near.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags shield bugs 1 Comment
July 13, 2011 by Dave Bonta

The incremental opening of the tansy flowers seems nearly complete. Two of the yellow heads are dotted with small brown shield bugs.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags shield bugs, tansy 1 Comment

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On This Day

  • October 6, 2025
    Crystal-clear. A Cooper’s hawk calls from the top of the tallest tree in the yard as sunrise reddens the western ridge.
  • October 6, 2024
    Clear and cold, with more sky showing through the ridgetop trees. A raucous assembly of crows gives way to ravens—their resonant croaks.
  • October 6, 2023
    Heavily overcast—what the weather app calls “light rain”—with a crow yelling in the distance and a yellow-bellied sapsucker mewing like a kitten.
  • October 6, 2022
    Another woods-edge maple has gone red. Bouncing bet still blooms beside the porch, four months on.
  • October 6, 2021
    Overcast at dawn. The silence is broken by the periodic splats of black walnuts. A barred owl’s single, round note.

See all...

Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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