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.

Perplexing Bumblebee

July 2, 2026

In the last couple days I’ve been seeing many Whorled Rosinweed (Silphium trifoliatum) in bloom along the dirt road up and down my mountain, creating a bright yellow pathway.

I recently stopped many times along the way and got pictures including several that had Perplexing Bumblebees (Bombus perplexus) at work gathering nectar containing carbohydrates, and protein-rich pollen. Bumblebees that are an eye-catching rich yellow.

These bumblebees are native to northern North America, including across Canada, and the eastern United States.

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Wild Bergamot And Yarrow

July 1, 2026

Native plants, Wild Bergamot (Monada fistulosa), with the lavender flowers, and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), with the white flowers, putting on a show for the first day of July.

There are many other native plants that are just beginning to make their beauty known, tempting pollinators all around.

Hoping I can get more photos of July’s blooms and share them with you before July is gone.

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Worm-eating Warbler

June 30, 2026

Though called Worm-eating Warbler (Helmitheros vermivorum) their diet doesn’t include what we would refer to as “worms”, but does include spiders, grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, and slugs.

Breeding season finds them in deciduous forests in the eastern United States. Their nest is built on the ground, looking like an open cup, among dead leaves. There are several other species of new-world warblers that also build their nests on the ground, including Black-and-white Warblers (Mniotilta varia), Ovenbirds (Serious aurocapilla), Northern Waterthrushes (Parkesia noveboracensis), Louisiana Waterthrushes (Parkesia motacilla), Palm Warblers (Setophaga palmarum), and Kentucky Warblers (Geothlypis formosa).

Surprising to see that there are so many similar little birds that build nests on the ground.

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Blue Vervain

June 29, 2026

Blue vervain (Verbena hastata). Native to the contiguous United States and stretches up into southern and eastern Canada.

Host plant of the Common Buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia)

Enjoys moist locations. Though this was photographed at Bluemont Park in Arlington, Virginia, I have it in my garden here at the cabin where is enjoys being located right next to the birdbath.

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Fly Poison In The Park

June 28, 2026

Further up the mountain, into Shenandoah National Park, an interesting plant, one I had never seen or heard of before. The picture above is of Fly Poison (Amianthium muscitoxicum) just before its flowers open.

And here, above, many of the flowers are now open. It’s a plant that is native to the eastern US, all the way from New York to Florida and west to Missouri and Oklahoma.

The name of this plant is a bit odd, but comes from the fact that all parts of the plant are poisonous to numerous animals, including humans. The bulb is particularly toxic. Early colonists used the bulbs, grinding them and adding a sweetener of sugar, molasses or honey, to attract flies. After flies took a sip, they became unstable and had difficulty moving.

Creepy, but pretty.

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Often Heard

June 27, 2026

A bird I rarely see but often hear, with its mnemonic of, “Wheat-a wheat-a wheat-EE-oh”.

A Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citron), here during the breeding season, and also in other parts of the eastern US and the most southern part of Canada. Wintering in Central America and the West Indies.

They eat insects found in dense vegetation in the woods, or they will fly out and catch insects mid-air. Though they don’t come to my feeders, on occasion I’ll see one at my birdbath.

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An American Lady

June 26, 2026

American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) enjoying the nectar of a Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).

As adults these butterflies have a short lifespan of approximately 2 to 4 weeks. There are some though, the ones that hatch late in autumn and live in regions with mild, warm winters, that can overwinter as adults. This gives them several months to migrate or reproduce in the spring.

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Soon To Be Queen Anne’s Lace

June 25, 2026

Delicate looking pink feet clutching the fuzzy stem of what will become a beautiful flower.

A year round resident, a male Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), has about reached its peak breeding season plumage. Captured here clinging to what will become the bloom of Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus Carota).

This flower is an herbaceous biennial that has large umbrella-like clusters of tiny individual flowers, called compound umbels, which are usually 2 to 5 inches across with the look of white lace. This plant is not native, having arrived in the early 1600s, after being brought to our continent by European colonists as a medicinal herb and food source.

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Redbud Seedpods

June 24, 2026

The Redbud trees (Cercis canadensis) up here on my mountain in April, reach out with their branches, painting the still black and white landscape with a striking pink hue everywhere one looks.

Now it’s June and those pink blooms have become seedpods, waiting to fall to the ground to become more Redbud trees.

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Ruby-throated Hummingbirds Raising Little Hummingbirds

June 23, 2026

Here, a Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Archilochusus colubrid) seeming to dance as she approaches a Scarlet Beebalm (Monarda didyma).

These Hummingbirds are here for their breeding season and soon we’ll be seeing a population explosion thanks to all the fledglings that will be arriving at the flowers that seem to call to them. It is the female that does all the work of motherhood, from building the nest (between mid-May and mid-June), to incubating the eggs, to raising the little ones. All on her own.

She will usually lay 2, very tiny white eggs, and here in Virginia, she will most often raise 2 broods (up to 3 broods in warmers parts of the state). She will incubate those eggs for between 12 and 14 days. Then the nestlings will be cared for in the nest for between 18 to 22 days, until they are ready to fledge.

And then BOOM! there will be many many many Hummingbirds flying to my feeders! I can hardly wait!

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