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.

Pressing My Luck – Bears

Every year it is always the same. I take great pleasure in feeding the birds and would do it all year long except there is the Bear (Ursus americanus) issue. They come out of their winter slumber focused on finding a quick meal. Though not the repast that would totally fill a several hundred pound bear, a chance encounter with a bird feeder would certainly be a great tidbit.

If and when a bear comes upon a bird feeder it will certainly think it is put out for bears. The bear may sit there and dismantle the feeder in a bear-like manner, totally destroying it in the process. OR the bear may venture into the woods with the prize. The snack to be eaten far from where it was found. Again that feeder will be demolished. Bears aren’t gentle.

The first sighting of a bear is my signal. A stop the bird feeding signal. I want my family to be safe and I want the bears’ families to be safe as well. Better that they don’t come by for handouts.

Yellow-breasted Chat

It’s been several years now since one of my favorite summer birds has come by for the season to brighten me. I would swear they are ventriloquists. Sounding like one was here but really there. Or sounding like one was high in the tree top but no one was there at all. And their sound. Cluck, cackle, click, gobble, chuckle, whistle. Never repeating a sound. Seeming to invent its own bird-words as time passed. I miss the Yellow-breasted Chats (Icteria virens) that always came to visit every summer.

Seems I would hear them whenever I was out. Surely they were greeting me. But clever in their hiding, I would rarely see them. Just a few times I was able to catch a glimpse and snap my shutter capturing one of them in pixels.

It’s early. There are many weeks until summer arrives. I’ll be listening. I’ll be hoping to get that happy whistle once again.

Yellow Trillium

Not quite native to Virginia though I’m quite pleased to have these flowers blooming in my gardens. Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum) is native to Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky. Some speak of a lemony scent. It must be mighty subtle. I don’t detect it.

The plants emerge from underground rhizomes which will spread slowly if left undisturbed. I’m leaving them undisturbed but they really are slow to spread. But they do seem to be quite happy! The flower consists of three tall slightly twisted lemon yellow petals and three slim green sepals sitting in the middle of a circle of three leaves. That’s really 3-ness!

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

What a special treat just three years ago when I saw my first Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus). They were migrating through but they took their sweet time giving me great opportunities to observe and admire them. They were wonderful models for me too.

Late April until early May is when they’ve arrived. Three years in a row. Making themselves at home at my feeders where they gobble down sunflower seeds. On their own they eat berries, seeds and insects.

The male outfitted in his striking black and white feathers accented with the brilliant crimson bib.

The female reminding me of my favorite hot fudge sundae with not quite enough hot fudge. I hear they’re in the neighborhood right now but I’ve yet to see any. Hoping I will, before they take off on the rest of their journey to their breeding grounds of northern North America or the mountains of the West.

Scarlet Tanager

They winter in South America. And their little wings carry them a humongous number of miles to get to their breeding grounds in eastern North America. Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea).

Male Scarlet Tanagers are that perfect color combination of brilliant red and black. Smart birds, they’re my favorite colors to wear too. The females are a subtle yellow and black.

If you are interested in what you might offer to attract Scarlet Tanagers to your yard, the internet will tell you to put out, “suet, mealworms, grape jelly or oranges.” My suggestion is have a birdbath or two or three and lots of blueberry bushes.

These beauties will be arriving very soon. I can’t wait.

Philadelphia Fleabane

Small daisy like flowers. Perfect for a party for fairies that are surely celebrating spring right about now. Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) is blooming in lovely bunches along the roadside coming up my mountain.

This Fleabane is a biennial or short-lived perennial. Perhaps a bit tall for fairies, it’s nine to thirty inches tall. Its composite flowers are made up of yellow disk flowers and outer ray flowers that can be white, pink, as in this photo, or lavender. Philadelphia Fleabane leaves are alternate. And those leaves clasp the stems, which distinguishes this species from all the other Fleabane species. How many Fleabane species are there? One hundred seventy species in North America, and three hundred ninety species world wide. That’s a bunch!

American Lily of the Valley

American Lily of the Valley

The Lily of the Valley that we all know, the one that used to grow in our Moms’ gardens is a native of Asia and Europe, European Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis). But there is a native too, though this designation of “native” and it being a different species is not agreed upon by the authorities. I’m going with native and a different species. American Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majuscula). This species is native to Georgia, up north to Pennsylvania and west to Kentucky.

American Lily of the Valley

The difference between these two species is quite subtle. In American Lily of the Valley, the plant is shy, only creating very small clumps if any. The European species is quite gregarious, creating large colonies in an aggressive manner. The leaves of the American Lily of the Valley are larger, than the European species. The racemes (a raceme is a flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along a central stem) of the American Lily of the Valley is shorter than the European species. Those racemes of the American species arch under the leaves, while the leaves of the European species stretch tall, as if standing on their tippy toes to see over the tops of the leaves.

I have both of these species and love having them. Oh MY! Such a delicious scent! I prefer the tame manner of the American species and I must say I really prefer native plants anyway for the sake of the environment. These two species bloom at different times though, which extends the time that I can enjoy their blooms and their wonderful aromas. My European species is in full bloom now and my native species is just now beginning to emerge from the soil. Many more weeks of lily of the valley beauty.

Juniper Hairstreak

How often do you get to see a green butterfly? For me, not often at all. Actually only once. And here it is. This is a Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus gryneus). Their host plant in my area, the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, is Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). The Juniper Hairstreak overwinters as a chrysalis. A mighty small butterfly with a wingspan of one inch. This one, in the image above, is drinking nectar from my Apple Mint.