The Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) that are here for the winter sure do enjoy the birdbath.
This image was taken as this thrush is enjoying the heaviest snowfall so far this winter. If you look closely, you’ll see the dusting, which I have to admit is an exaggeration to call it that. Perhaps barely a dusting is more appropriate. This snow arrived on January 14. A week ago.
Not a fern, but a moss. Delicate Fern Moss (Thuidium delicatulum), found up here in the woods, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Mosses are non-vascular plants, plants that absorb water and nutrients through their leaves. Those leaves harvest carbon dioxide and sunlight to create food using photosynthesis.
This moss, Delicate Fern Moss, can be found from Alaska to Brazil. Quite the range, maybe not actually all that delicate.
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Yes, frogs in winter. The beginning of February. I’m watching the calendar and the pond. They’ll be here soon. They seek shelter under the leaves that fall in autumn, and survive being frozen by what seems like magic. They increase their blood glucose levels, which acts as an antifreeze. But with daytime temperatures rising to the 50s they leave their shelters and go to nearby ponds.
That first frog to show up in my little pond, Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus). Many of them in a mating frenzy. Making lots of noise, day and night, sounding like little ducks having a grand time.
A dear friend of mine, a bit ago, asked me about birds caching. I just happened to catch this Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), doing just that, caching some food for better times.
Caching is hiding food away to retrieve and eat later in the season. The Red-bellied Woodpecker will hide away acorns, nuts including whole peanuts, seeds, fruits, corn kernels, insects, suet, and peanut butter. In this picture, above, it is hiding peanuts into the holes in this tree stump.
These Red-bellied Woodpeckers are in my woods year round, and while I have my feeders out there is at least one that I see several times a day.
When I lived in Arlington, they were regular visitors to my feeders too. Wonderful to see them and to hear their call.
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Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). They don’t come to my feeders, but I often see them at the birdbath. While they’re here during the winter, they eat berries. While they’re away during the breeding season, they eat insects and invertebrates. Wondering if they’re finding any to eat now. Though it technically is winter, it sure has been a warm winter.
A Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) surprised me this morning. A bird I seldom see, it was at the birdbath quenching its thirst.
This Catbird eats insects and invertebrates when they’re available, also eats fruits and berries.
I’m particularly bewildered because when I do see a Gray Catbird, it is normally during the summer. This is the first time I’ve ever seen one during the winter. Well, in any event, I’m glad I saw it and was able to get pictures.
Coker’s Amanita (Amanita cokeri). A mycorrhizal mushroom, meaning they will share a symbiotic relationship, or mutually beneficial relationship, with hardwoods and conifers. Growing in the soil under the trees that they benefit and receive benefit from. They’ll grow singly or together in groups.
Coker’s Amanitas can be found in eastern US and in the Southeast in particular. Its white cap, which is covered with many pointed bumps, can grow to be six inches across.
I love to find mushrooms in the woods, to capture them in pixels.
This blog gives no information about the edibility or toxicity of any of the mushrooms that are written about.
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Early April. Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) begins to emerge, ready to tackle another year.
Buds that become flowers, arrive soon after the leaves. Flowers that become berries in April will delight hungry birds come winter.
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Until I moved here to the cabin, Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) was just a plant that I needed to avoid. Those three leaves – beware. But now I have learned there is so much more to know about the plant. There are buds in May (in the photo above, left). And believe it or not, flowers in June (in the photo above, right).
Then in July there are green berries (in the photo above, left). By October those green berries are turning to white (in the photo above, right).
Come January those white berries are perfect for tempting Chickadees, and many different species of woodpeckers. Surely there are many other birds that enjoy the berries but these are the ones that I see most often eating them. Of course you have recognized the Chickadee in the picture on the left. And here, in the photo above, on the right, is a Pileated Woodpecker and at the bottom of the that photo, is a Northern Flicker.
Though I’m extremely allergic to Poison Ivy I really enjoy having it around, for the birds.
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Okay, to be honest, I’ve got many favorite birds – but this is one of them. Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe). They are consumers of mostly flying insects, with a few that don’t fly, such as ticks, spiders and millipedes. That’s one reason for my vote as a favorite.
A bird that says its name, “Phoebe!” Almost identical to another bird that also says its name, the Eastern Wood-pewee. Listen to hear the difference, as it says, “Pewee!” Another difference, one that I depend on all the time, is the Eastern Phoebe’s flicking of its tail, up and then down, up and then down, most all the time.
The Eastern Phoebe often returns to its nest site year after year. Here at my cabin, places that have been chosen to build a nest have been under the eaves of the wood shop, at the crook of a down spout near the eaves of the cabin, and atop a light fixture on the porch. And some of these nests have been reused time and again.
My own personal insect eradicators.
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