Author Archives: Brenda Clements Jones

About 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.

Witch Hazel Blooms Of October

October 6, 2025

They make me think of shredded coconut. The late in the season flowers of Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) each have 4 petals and 4 sepals.

Those petals are tape-like, about .75 inches long, often distorted and twisted. Usually the blooms are soft or bright yellow, though occasionally you might come across this same species of Witch Hazel with varying shades of red or orange.

These late season flowers provide an important last source of nectar and pollen for flies, bees, and moths when other flowers have stopped blooming.

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On Their Way!

October 5, 2025

The last of the migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) came through a couple days ago, getting refills of energy at the Zinnias (Zinnia) that are in the garden.

I captured this one in pixels and was surprised to see that I actually got a picture of its tongue reaching into the flower for the nectar. Look closely and perhaps you’ll be able to see it. The tongue of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird is about 1.5 inches long and it is used in an incredible fashion.

The tongue is rather tubular and forked. As the tongue comes out the forked tips are held together, giving the tongue the look of a long needle. Reaching the nectar, it splits its hairlike structures along the tongue’s tips, unfurling in the nectar. As the hummingbird removes its tongue from the nectar those hairlike structures re-furl and trap nectar within each tongue tip. The nectar is released by the hummingbird, squeezing and compressing the tongue as it’s drawn into the bill. This process can occur up to twelve times a second. Amazing.

Several minutes later and another hummingbird came by for Zinnia nectar and another demonstration of the incredible action of its tongue.

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What Is A Skipper?

October 4, 2025

Here, a Sachem Skipper (Atalopedes campestris), on a Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). What is a Skipper? A Skipper is a type of Butterfly. And a Moth is another type of insect in the same order as the Butterflies and Skippers, Lepidoptera.

Butterflies, Skippers and Moths tend to be a bit confusing. Their differences include their time of activity. In general Moths are active at night, while Butterflies and Skippers are usually active during the day. Their antennae are another difference. The antennae of Moths are feathery, and fernlike, or long and pointed. Butterflies have antennae that are long and thin with clubbed tips. And the antennae of Skippers are also long and thin but have pointed hooks on the tips.

There is also a difference in their posture as they rest. Moths keep their wings flat when at rest or held together over their body. Butterflies will generally hold their wings together over their body but on occasion will keep their wings flat. Skippers hold their front wings in a V shape while their hind wings are kept flat, out to the sides.

Whether a Moth, a Butterfly or a Skipper, they’re all beautiful!

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Painted Lady On Pineapple Sage

October 3, 2025

I’m very dedicated to sowing natives in my gardens but there are some plants that tell me that there needs to be an exception where they are concerned. For the autumn I put in non-natives, Zinnias (Zinnia), Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia), and Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) seen here. I plant them for the benefit of pollinators, like this one, a Painted Lady (Salvia elegans), which need flowers that provide nectar and pollen for the many bees and butterflies of autumn.

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Paper Wasp On Goldenrod

October 2, 2025

Goldenrod (Solidago) produces beautiful, prolific blooms in late summer and early autumn. Its pollen is heavy, sticky, and not airborne like the green flowers of Ragweed (Ambrosia). In order to have an allergic reaction to Goldenrod you would in all probability have physical contact with it, and not simply by breathing in the pollen.

Here a Paper Wasp (Polistinae) is dining on the nectar of Goldenrod. There are over 100 species of Goldenrod that are native to North America, and they play an important role in providing nectar and pollen to pollinators late in the season when there are few flowers blooming.

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Native Beautyberry

October 1, 2025

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana). Native to the southern United States, from Virginia south to Florida, and west to Texas. Please use caution if you are interested in getting this native shrub from a nursery. There sometimes 4 species of Beautyberry sold at your local nursery. The one you want has the scientific name of Callicarpa americana on its tag. That is the one you want.

There is a difference visible in the autumn when these shrubs have berries on them. The native species has its berries tightly clustered at the stem, much like a well clipped French Poodle, while other species’ berries are held away from the stem.

Many birds enjoy the berries and will come to eat them well into winter including but definitely not limited to the American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, and Eastern Towhee.

What a spectacular color these berries are!

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Virginia Sweetspire

September 30, 2025

Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica) showing off its colors of autumn.

This Sweetspire is native to the southeast United States, blooming in May and June with fragrant, cylindrical, brushlike inflorescences that attract many bees and butterflies. Next come seedheads that attract songbirds.

Growing to 4 or 5 feet tall, often found in swamps, stream banks, and floodplains. 

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Variegated Fritillary Enjoying Aster Blooms

September 29, 2025

A medium sized butterfly ranging from 1.75 to 2.75 inches, with males being smaller than females. A Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) enjoying nectar of White Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides).

Found in Nova Scotia and southern Manitoba into New England, also southern California to the southern Great Plains on to Florida, and also in Central and South America to Argentina, including the Greater Antilles. They are not able to survive freezing weather so migrate to warmer locations during the winter and back north in the warmer months.

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Sky Blue Asters And A Monarch

September 28, 2025

A Monarch (Danaus plexippus) stopping by on a sunny afternoon in autumn for a meal of nectar from the many blooms of Sky Blue Asters (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense), as it travels south. Asters are an autumn blooming plant that provides an important source of energy for their incredible migration.

These Monarchs that are migrating, live for 8 or 9 months which enables them to make the journey. Members of the summer generations live for only for a short, 2 to 6 weeks.

Wishing them a good trip.

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Persimmons

September 27, 2025

Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) are quite common up here. That is in part because this fruit is a favorite of Black Bears (Ursus americanus), which helps in the distribution of its seeds. The fruit looks like this right now. I generally see them growing to be 1 to 1.5 inch diameter little round balls.

A couple weeks later in the season, the fruit will take on a brighter rich orange color and then on to an orange-purple color and begin dropping to the ground. Look for that color to know that they are ripe.

The native range of these Persimmons is from southern Connecticut clear south to Florida, and west to Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa.

These are not the larger Persimmons that you see in the grocery store. Those are Asian Persimmons (Diospyros kaki) which grow to 3 to 5 inches in diameter.

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