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.

Virginia Bluebells just Beginning

The air was still today. A very welcome respite from the whipping wind of the past few days. The warmish spring weather and bright sunshine called to me. My camera and I roamed looking for ephemerals making their appearance, and I returned with many images to add to my stash.

One discovery, Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica). At this point in their short lives I find they are not showing their exceptional blue, but glorious purple and brilliant pink.

The exceptional blue I mention in the Virginia Bluebell is something special since only 10% of the world’s 280,000 flowering plant species have blooms that are truly blue. For those of us that are lovers of the color blue, that makes this one a special flower.

Another Spring Ephemeral

A spring ephemeral is a species of plant appearing for just a short period of time above ground to flower, produce seed and then go dormant. Enjoy these Cutleaf Toothworts (Cardamine concatenata), they are the spring ephemerals I’m speaking of tonight.

Sensitive plants these Toothworts. As you hike the next few weeks you’ll find them blooming trailside if the soil has never experienced heavy construction activities or has never been plowed. It is a plant that cannot survive such conditions. Sensitive.

Another thing these beauties will not tolerate, competition from the invasive Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). We’ll only see Cutleaf Toothwort for a few weeks this spring. Let’s hope conditions are favorable for them to appear again next year. We’ve got to take care of our natural world.

Flying with a Camera

I love to drive across the country to see the varied landscapes, the interesting minuscule towns, to see life from a different point of view. But I also love fly to some distant destination, with this qualification: I must have a window seat and my good buddy/camera along with me. The image above was obtained that way, me, my trusty sidekick and a window seat. It was taken somewhere between Virginia and Arizona. I seriously doubt that this is Virginia though.

And THEN after the flight, a rental car and many destinations. Innumerable places to fill me with wonder. Usually in the Southwest and most often in New Mexico. This photo above is from Zion National Park. A beautiful plant, Shooting Star (Dodecatheon pulchellum), native to the Western states, and a member of the Primula family. So much out there to see. There and here.

Cauliflorous

Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) and with needles growing from its trunk, being photobombed by a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus).

Redbud (Cercis canadensis) with flower buds emerging from its trunk.

Who would have thought Redbud and Pitch Pine have something in common.

These are cauliflorous trees. They have flowers that emerge from their main trunk or larger branches. It is thought that this makes the flowers and fruit more easily accessed for pollination and dispersal of their seeds.

And the word cauliflorous has nothing to do with cauliflower.

Pink Fog

The blooming of Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) in the woods is a highlight of spring. Something that makes it even more wonderful is when there is FOG blanketing the mountain. Wait until the light is just right and you’ll see what I mean. Then, in that moment, it’s not a pale gray nearly white fog like you usually see, but it becomes a pink fog, wrapping around every tree, every rock, every just emerging Bloodroot and Mayapple. Pink fog.

Though delicate in appearance, the flowers of Redbud are tough little things, surviving snow, ice, and most anything that the spring season can throw at them. They come through like champs.

I’ve been surprised to see birds eating petals of blossoms on my fruit trees. These Redbud petals and flowers are also something that Cedar Waxwings and Northern Cardinals will eat.

And another bird will eat those flowers and petals. Caught in the act here, a Goldfinch.

Graupel

Yesterday’s precipitation was for me a delight to see and my use of the word “graupel” in yesterday’s blog post took some of you by surprise. If you went to your dictionary, you might not have found it. It’s not in the dictionary that is here on my computer either but it’s a word that is used by meteorologists whenever this cold weather occurrence presents itself.

Graupel has the look of styrofoam that has been broken into small pieces. The process that occurs to create graupel starts out high in the atmosphere as snowflakes are falling. They hit a layer of supercooled water droplets. Stay with me here, supercooled water is in the form of a liquid but is below 32°. As the water droplets hit the snowflake they stick to its surface.

Think of graupel as a snowflake covered in frost, or rime. Generally it is a 2 to 5 mm clump falling to the ground. A soft clump. Not hard like ice as hail or ice pellets would be. Cool stuff, graupel.

Perhaps the Last Sighting for a While

Not really purple but raspberry red, male, and soft brown and white, female. A pair of Purple Finches (Haemorhous purpureus). Most winters I don’t see these finches due to their erratic and irruptive habit, thought to be connected to variations in the production of conifer cones in their winter range. Spring migration generally happens between February and May, the males leaving first heading to their breeding grounds. Hoping I’ll see them again next winter.