Author: 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.

A Sugar Maple Leaf

I recently spent a few days in Highland County, Virginia, where there are a multitude of Sugar Maple trees (Acer saccharum). They are ubiquitous in those mountains. Here at home, in the mountains of Greene County, they are not as common. At my altitude there are a few and further up they are a bit more common.

Along a trail up here, this Sugar Maple leaf had fallen to the ground. Just beginning to reflect the season. It was slowly losing its green before it took its tumble. Yellow sneaking in to take its place. Most leaves are green up here at the moment. Slowly, slowly, things will change.

Partridge Berry

Partridge Berry (Mitchella repens). A gorgeous evergreen trailing vine. Growing just two inches tall, with stems of up to twelve inches long. Though a vine, it doesn’t climb.

Buds emerge as pairs. Each pair has ovaries that are fused at the base and will result in just one scarlet berry. Both flowers must be pollinated for that single berry to be created.

A special plant for many reasons. Its requirement for light is minimal. Shade is fine. Moisture is important. A plant that is not happy in drought.

A plant that I found growing on my Grandmother Clements grave. That makes it particularly special.

Eastern Calligrapher

The Aromatic Asters (Aster oblongifolius) in my garden are just beginning to show off their soft lavender blooms. Those few flowers have gotten the attention of an Eastern Calligrapher (Toxomerus geminatus). It’s a tiny creature, measuring just 1/4 inch long.

Though it looks like a bee or a wasp, it is a fly. It doesn’t sting. Count those wings. Just two. Bees and wasps have four wings. Flies have just two wings. And a mighty good fly to have around. It’s a pollinator. As an adult it eats pollen and nectar. While in its larval stage the Eastern Calligrapher eats aphids and other small garden pests. Indeed, a mighty good fly to have around.

Meteorological Autumn

It started just over a week ago, and some leaves are playing their part perfectly. Meteorological autumn has begun. Temperatures are cooling. Days, little by little, are getting shorter.

Trees of the forest pick up on these signals. They know it’s time to get ready for the cold that will descend upon them. Prepare for winter. Stop producing that green chlorophyll, and let the leaves become brilliant red, yellow and many shades of orange.

These leaves, of Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), have picked up on the signals quickly.

Woodpecker In Highland County

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). One of many birds, that I watched from the front porch of the house we stayed in during our visit to Highland County.

The Northern Flicker, along with all other woodpeckers, is in the family Picidae. They have strong bills and most woodpeckers use their bills for drumming and hammering into trees and have long sticky tongues for grabbing insects and larvae from their hammering sites. The Northern Flicker though, listens to a different drummer, and for the most part uses its bill for drumming into soil, looking for ants and beetles and their grubs. And that tongue? It can extend it 2 inches beyond the end of its bill.

And here a male Northern Flicker is either showing off why birds of his species also have the common name of Yellow Shafted Flicker, or he is directing traffic. I’m not sure which.