Author Archives: Brenda Clements Jones

About Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

Sharing With The Birds

An picture of a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), enjoying the berries that are getting ripe around my cabin. But looking at it makes me wonder why this one doesn’t have the characteristic red waxy wing tips that I see so often.

Those red wax tips on the Waxwing’s secondary feathers are red thanks to a carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin. As the young bird adds years to its age those waxy tips begin to grow in. Younger birds have 0 to 5 red waxy tips, as the bird ages it gets between 5 to 9 red tips, and birds with 9 or more are older. These red tips seem to play a part in mate selection.

By the way, secondary feathers are located at the bottom of a bird’s wings. They are the inner flight feathers which aid in soaring and lift in flight.

Here is another Cedar Waxwing in the blueberry bushes, an older one with red waxy tips on its secondary feathers.

So glad that the birds enjoy the blueberries as much as I do!

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Common Whitetail

An interesting insect that perches on vegetation along the edges of ponds, marshes, and slow-moving rivers. Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia).

Perching on vegetation, watching, waiting, to swoop out to capture mosquitos and other small flying insects in mid-air.

A good insect to have around

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Surprise In The Vegetable Garden

Dinner was being cleared off the table, when I spotted from the kitchen window, a Box Turtle in the vegetable garden. Right away I went out with my camera. I always take a photograph of any Box Turtle I come upon, whether I’m here at home or driving down the road. If it’s on the road, it’s most important to help it across, putting it on the side where it’s heading. The photos are because the patterns on the shells are unique to each individual and it is easy to tell one from the other. That helps to know if I’m seeing the same one time and again.

The surprise though, was there were two turtles out there in the garden. Both of them were digging away with their back legs, preparing to lay their eggs. One would have not been a surprise. But two!

Box Turtles lay their eggs mid-May to late June and into July, depending on the elevation. Two to eight eggs in a clutch. These turtles don’t usually begin breeding until they are about ten years of age. And with some luck they will live to be Fifty to One Hundred or more years of age.

The home range of a Box Turtle is about two hundred fifty yards or less, whether male or female, old or young. Their home ranges often overlap with no antagonism. Given the turtles inability to travel long distances leave them where you find them. Don’t pick one up and move it to another location.

I’m looking forward to discovering more little Box Turtles in the future.

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Walkingstick

This afternoon the hummingbird feeders needed to be refilled, so I took a break to wash them out and put new syrup in them. Much to my surprise, I spotted the smallest walkingstick I’ve ever seen, on one of the ant guards. This is a Northern Walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata). Two pictures for you, one for scale with the postage stamp, the other enlarged a bit so you might be able to get a better look.

Here an adult Northern Walkingstick in the same stance as the nymph, folding their front legs up against their antennae, basically saying, “You are not seeing me. You are seeing a stick.”

A Northern Walkingstick hatches from its egg, as a nymph, and indeed they are very small. As they grow, they shed their outer skin, allowing more growth. This happens several times as they grow into an adult. As an adult, a male reaches about 3 inches in length, and a female will grow to about 3.75 inches. They become adults at 3 months to a year, with a lifespan of about 2 years.

In North America, 30 species of walkingsticks have been identified. All of these 30 species are clever masters of camouflage. Indeed, they do look like the stick that is included in the Northern Walkingstick’s name.

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Skipper

A skipper that is mighty easy to recognize thanks to its large bright white spot on the ventral view of its wings.

This skipper is found in a large part of the United States into southern Canada. Adults sip the nectar of many different flowers.

Skippers are classified together with true butterflies since they fly during the day. They are different from butterflies though, because of their fat, furry bodies.

The Silver Spotted Skipper is a skipper that I see often, keeping me company, as I hike up my mountain.

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Purple

What a lovely color. This is Venus’ Looking Glass (Triodanis perfoliata), in the Bellflower family (Campanulaceae). Its leaves clasp the stem, giving it another common name, Clasping Bellflower.

Native to North and South America, ranging from Canada to Argentina. Pollinators attracted to Venus’ Looking Glass are small bees, and small butterflies and skippers.

This annual herbaceous plant grows unbranched between 4 and 10 inches tall. Blooms appear in late spring into early summer. Very small seeds are wind dispersed. Much to my delight that wind has brought a couple of those seeds into the vegetable garden and now I’ve got purple blooms along with the tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers.

Female Hummingbird

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). These tiny creatures are so very entertaining. I think about now, all have arrived that will be here for the summer. I love to see them whirling about like crazy, chasing each other, playing “King of the Mountain” by sitting on top of the feeder keeping everyone else away. Such fun.

And then in her little tiny squeaky voice she goes, “TA DAA!” — at least in my imagination.

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Black Raspberry Or Blackberry

Black Raspberries

After talking about Black Raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) with a dear friend just yesterday – what do I come upon today, but ripe Black Raspberries. A look alike, the Blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) will not be ripe for another month.

Before I mention the differences between the berries, I want to mention that the plants themselves look a quite different, the canes in particular. It always strikes me when I see a Black Raspberry bush, the color of the canes surprise me, a very pale green-blue color.

Blackberries

The berries certainly look alike but there are differences. The Black Raspberry, aside from getting ripe much earlier, is a smaller, quite round berry. The Blackberry, as you can see in the photograph, is longer than it is wide, and depending on how much rainfall there is, it is usually a larger berry. I expect this year, the Blackberries are going to be quite small, due to lack of rain. That is unless we get a lot of rain in the next month.

The taste of the berries is quite different. The Black Raspberry is delightfully sweet, while the Blackberry has an earthy, sour flavor. The seeds of the two berries are different too. As you eat them, the seeds of the Black Raspberry are not nearly as noticeable as the seeds of the Blackberry which seem to be prominent. When harvesting the berries you will see that the two look different. The Black Raspberry is hollow, while the Blackberry has a pale green center. And finally the Blackberry is quite shiny, while the Black Raspberry has a white bloom, much like a Blueberry has.

Goodness. All this yummy berry talk has me getting hungry. I should have picked more of those Black Raspberries.

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Really Red

This morning I spotted two male Scarlet Tanagers (Piranga olivacea) in my Montmorency cherry tree. A tree that is filled with brilliant red cherries. Seeing one of these gorgeous birds is a real treat but to see two together is amazing. And in that tree with cherries that match their color – way beyond amazing. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to capture the two of them together, surrounded by their matching cherries but here’s one of them in the vegetable garden. I’m going to have to keep my eyes open, watching for them. Not only are there the cherries calling to them, but blueberries are ripe too.

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Fledgling Cardinal

I don’t keep track of birds I’ve seen, where and when. No life list. Yesterday though, was the first time I’ve ever seen a fledgling Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). I won’t write it down. Just interesting to think of.

Cardinals generally lay their eggs late April to early May. Two to five eggs are laid, in a well hidden nest that the female has built, in dense shrubs, vines or low trees. The nest is composed of twigs, bark strips, leaves, grass and weeds, lined with fine grass or hair. The eggs will hatch after about 12 days of careful incubation by the female.

The baby Cardinals hatch with black legs and a black beak, a tiny poof of red feathers on their head. In 9 to 11 days after hatching, when they reach a point when they can fly, they will leave the nest. At the age of about 2 weeks they’ll learn to eat by themselves, but for another week or so their parents will still feed them. Approaching the age of 4 weeks the juvenile cardinals will have a bit of the coloring of soft brown or red plumage.

They’ll stay together as a family for about 2 months, while the young ones are learning to find food, and what predators are, and how to avoid them. After leaving their parents they’ll find other juvenile birds and flock with them. They’ll stay with the flock until they are ready to mate. At around 6 months they will reach their full size. By this time too their beak will have changed from black to the orange we’re familiar with.

It will take about 18 months for the young Cardinal to grow its full adult plumage. It’s a this point that all the adult feathers are in, with all the colors that we expect to see.

And then after all this growth and change I will see these beautiful birds with their lovely colors at my feeders.

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