Roaming the trails up here, you’re going to find Pinxter Azaleas (Rhododendron periclymenoides) blooming with their beautiful pink flowers, here and there. It’s a deciduous shrub that is native from Massachusetts to South Carolina and Tennessee.
Spring is unfolding in such a lovely way!
Arriving in the vegetable garden, it immediately got my attention. A tiny bird that I only see during breeding season. Flitting about as if quite nervous it’s a bird that makes getting a photograph very challenging. If I get any photo at all, even if it is blurry, I’m pleased. I’ve recorded the occasion.
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers primarily consume insects, spiders, and caterpillars, which makes luring any that might be nearby to feeders impossible. But any of these critters that they eat in the vegetable garden are definitely appreciated. They make a squeaky, slurry, chippy sound which alerts me to look for them.
Just the beginning of breeding season and I’m thoroughly enjoying all the arrivals.
The Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) is one of five North American thrushes in the genus Catharus, and the only one that winters in the United States. We in the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia are fortunate to have them as our residents during that time.
This one is enjoying the berries of Smooth Sumac in January.
And here, doing its impression of a 747 about to take off, a Hermit Thrush, in one of my favorite photographs, that I’ve taken over the years.
Good bye sweet Hermit Thrushes. Looking forward to see you in late autumn, next year.
An odd little clump of a plant that I’ve only seen in one spot in my travels along the trails up here in the mountains. Virginia Pennywort (Obolaria virginica). The only member of its genus. How special. Leaves and flowers grow all squashed together as if grown inside a tight space.
Virginia Pennywort is native to the eastern United States. It’s a plant that is mycotrophic, which is a type of symbiotic relationship. This involves the roots of a woody plant that uses photosynthesis to get its nutrients, and microrrhizal fungi. These three items (Virginia Pennywort, woody plant and fungi) involved in carbon, water and nutrients being shared by these three plants. So, though it does have green leaves, it doesn’t depend entirely on photosynthesis. This is called hemiparasitic, or partially parasitic.
Nature is so amazing.
In honor of Earth Day 2022, I bring you some of my birds. As you think of these precious birds, and our wonderful planet, I hope you can decide to work to make a difference. Not to save our planet, but things you can do to save our environment. The planet doesn’t need to be saved. It’s going to keep on spinning for billions of years. Our environment needs to be saved. The environment these birds need to survive. The environment we humans need to survive.
These and other delicate creatures and creatures that don’t seem so delicate need our help. Celebrate our planet today on Earth Day and determine to make a difference. There is so much to be done. You’ve heard all the options. Make up your mind and do it.
The birds, top row, left to right: Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis).
Middle row, left to right: Costa Hummingbird (Calypte costae), Scarlet Tanager (female)(Piranga olivacea), Sharp Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus).
Bottom row, left to right: Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus).
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Yum! Asparagus, home grown. Straight from the garden. A joy to have at the table. A pleasure.
Just now beginning to leaf out, greeting spring. Maple-leaf Viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium), native to eastern North America, an understory, deciduous shrub.
It’s plentiful up here on my mountain, and is easy to identify with its twin, maple-like leaves. I’ve been fortunate to have received several of these shrubs as gifts. Shrubs that I’m watching grow as each year passes. Shrubs that add to my pleasure living in the woods.
The Maple-leaf Viburnum will mature to a height of six feet and a width of 4 feet. In early May pale pink buds emerge making way for soft white flat-topped flower clusters, know as cymes.
Maple-leaf Viburnum has a nectar that with its fragrance attracts bees, flower flies, moths and butterflies to help pollinate the flowers. It’s also a larval host of the Spring Azure.
The cyme, is one to three inches wide consisting of quarter inch wide individual flowers, a soft white often with a slight hint of pink.
These flowers must be cross-pollinated with another Maple-leaf Viburnum plant that is not an exact clone in order for berry-like drupes to appear in the autumn.
The fruits are attractive to many birds, including Ruffed Grouse, Cedar Waxwings, Cardinals, Hermit Thrushes, Eastern Bluebirds, Robin and Wild Turkeys.
If proper pollination takes place, the flowers give way to blue-black drupes in late autumn that may persist into the winter. The autumn leaf color ranges from shades of pink to red, leaning toward purple, and warm yellow. Gorgeous!
And the award for Choreography in the Woods goes to: Northern Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum).
Slowly dancing from the soil. Unfurling its fronds.
Extending its pinnae. Shedding spring rains.
Northern Maidenhair Fern is native to moist forests in eastern North America.
The genus name, Adiantum, comes from the Greek word, adiantos, which means, unwetted – referring to the way the fronds repel water.
Such beauty and grace in nature.
American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), my hero.
“The American witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is one of those plants that would like to have everyone’s undivided attention. You know the type: a bit of a rebel, marches to the beat of its own drum. This native shrub’s unwillingness to heed convention has made it popular among gardeners for hundreds of years.” Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Leaves emerging. Branches still decorated not with flowers, but what remains of the flowers that occurred at an unheard of time for blooming, October, November, some even into December. These are the calyxes of those strappy yellow blooms.
Folded up as vintage hand fans, growing daily, expanding.
Unfolding day by day. Adding rich green to the landscape.
Like other tree leaves as they open, the leaves begin working on their purpose, photosynthesis. Using carbon dioxide, sunlight and water they create sugars for the tree. Those sugars give the Witch Hazel energy to grow. Photosynthesis also creates oxygen which we animals need in order to breathe. Such a monumental task for these green leaves no bigger than six inches.
Apple trees at the moment are a huge puff of snow white and soft pink. A delight for pollinators gathering to make the trees buzz with excitement. This pollinator, above, is a Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus).
Two Spicebush Swallowtails (Papilio troilus).
A Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus).
A Nessus Sphinx Moth (Amphion floridensis).
And looking quite similar to the Nessus Sphinx Moth, this is a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe).
This, representing the oodles of species of bees and wasps that visit the apple blossoms, is a Virginia Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica).
It is astounding to stand next to one of these apple trees in bloom and see and think about the number of insects that are feeding on the nectar of these charming flowers. Absolutely astounding.
