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.

A Good Start To Spring

March 20, 2025

Happy first day of spring! It’s been a mighty nice start to the new season. I don’t think “normal” would be an appropriate word to describe how things have been this year. Perhaps “expected” would be a better word.

This image is from March 22, 2018. And I have oodles of other pictures of Daffodils (Narcissus) inundated with snow from many years in the past. Weather is just so fickle.

I’m thoroughly enjoying seeing color emerge throughout the woods. SPRING!

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The Owl Is Here Again!

March 19, 2025

I’m pleased to realize that this Barred Owl (Strix varia) hangs out here a good bit. It showed up again this evening, as dessert was being served, and stayed on that same Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) branch for more than an hour. It’s the same branch I captured it on many days ago. It watched intently as songbirds ate hulled sunflower seeds on the ground and woodpeckers worked at the suet in the feeders. Demonstrating to me how easily it can turn its head 270 degrees in either direction.

Surely it could see me as I was taking pictures and showed no concern. Same reaction as when I captured the Barred Owl in flight a while back. Same one? Probably.

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Native Flowers Blooming At The Backdoor

March 18, 2025

I was surprised as I stepped out the back door this afternoon, as I looked around and saw my Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) blooming. I had been wanting to see some native plants blooming but it hadn’t occurred to me to think about what those blooms might be. Yay spring!

Bloodroot is a plant that fascinates me because of its relationship with ants and myrmecochory. Myrmecochory involves an ant-plant interaction. The plant, Bloodroot in this case, has a seed with an attachment called an elaiosome that is attractive to ants because of its lipids, amino acids, or other nutrients. Ants gather these seeds and take them to their nest where they are consumed by ant larvae. The seeds are then discarded. Makes me think of the ants as farmers.

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Sure Looks Like Asparagus

March 17, 2025

This the emerging tip of of a flower stalk on a Yucca Filamentosa (Yucca filamentosa), taken in May 2023. Sure looks like an asparagus spear to me, and with good reason.

Yucca plants and asparagus belong to the same plant family, which is Asparagaceae.

Don’t try eating that asparagus looking Yucca tip though, it will taste like soap.

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Slickrock Paintbrush

March 16, 2025

A plant to be admired for its determination and ability to sprout where its seeds are scattered. In cracks in rocks high up on steep walls at Zion National Park, where I managed to capture a picture. This plant has an appropriate common name, Slickrock Paintbrush (Castilleja scabrida).

That brilliant red, by the way, those are not petals but bracts. Bracts like you see on Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) or Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). All three of these have flowers that seem to have obvious petals but those petals are actually bracts.

Slickrock Paintbrush can be found mainly in Utah and Colorado, though it is native to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. It grows at elevations of 3,900 to 9,200 feet.

I don’t think it would be happy here at all.

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First Butterfly Of Late Winter/Early Spring

March 15, 2025

Mourning Cloak Butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa), native to North America and Eurasia. These butterflies have a remarkable lifespan, living as adults for 10 to 12 months, much longer than the normal life span of 2 to 4 weeks. As adults they feed on sap, ripe and fallen fruits, and honeydew from aphids.

These butterflies overwinter as adults. Favorite spots for spending the winter, tree cavities, cracks in rocks, log piles. On warm days during the winter they will emerge from their hibernation, known as torpor in the insect world, to return to their wintering spot as the weather gets frigid again. One of the first butterflies you may see in late winter, or early spring.

I’ve seen them out and about in the past couple weeks.

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And Now Toad Eggs

March 14, 2025

Yesterday I wrote about Frog and Salamander Eggs. In the picture above are some eggs that are different. They’re the eggs of an American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus). I found them in a small stream running alongside the road further up the mountain.

Frog eggs are always in eggmasses. Salamander eggs are sometimes in eggmasses though occasionally they are laid individually or in small clusters. Toad eggs are always in strands looking similar to strings of black pearls like in this picture.

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Frogs And Salamanders

March 13, 2025

They have partied and now there are eggmasses in my vernal pool. These two clumps are the eggs of Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus). They contain from 1,000 to 3,000 eggs each. They hatch 9 to 30 days later, in part depending on the temperature of the water. Warmer water encouraging hatching more quickly. They stay at the tadpole stage of development for 8 to 12 weeks when they will metamorphose into tiny versions of Wood Frogs. In the wild the Wood Frogs life span about 3 years.

And also in the vernal pool are the eggmasses of Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum). Not as many as the Wood Frogs but easy to tell the difference and easy to spot. Each eggmass contains 30 to 250 eggs. These eggs take from 20 to 60 days to hatch. Then they become, not tadpoles but larvae. In 2 to 4 months they’ll metamorphose into terrestrial juvenile salamanders, living within about 1/2 mile of their vernal pool. Adults can live 20 years or more.

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Here Comes Spring

March 12, 2025

Daffodil (Narcissus).

No Daffodils are native to North America. They’re native to southern Europe and North Africa, with the main concentration being in the Western Mediterranean on the Iberian Peninsula.

Most species of Daffodil bloom in late winter to spring, but there are five species that march to the beat of their own drum. These five species N. broussonetii, N. cabanillesii, N. elegans, N. serotinus, and N. viridiflorus flower in the autumn. And along with that difference they don’t get their leaves until after blooming.

I’m so glad that all the different species of Daffodils that I have bloom in the spring. What a thrill this afternoon to go out and get pictures. Welcome spring!

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An Orchid At The Table

March 11, 2025

An Orchid (Orchidaceae) greets me as I take a seat at the dinner table. It blooms year after year. Like most houseplants, it’s not a native plant. A kind gesture from a dear friend that I see occasionally at yoga.

It came as quite a surprise to me, as I have become more wrapped up in the environment and the world of nature that there are many orchids native to Virginia. As is the case with loads of things, as I try to find information on the internet, the number is quite variable. One reference site gave the number of orchids native to Virginia as 64. That’s a lot.

You might enjoy seeing a blog post I did a while back with pictures of a few of the native orchids I’ve spotted here on this mountain. You can find it at: https://www.brendaclem.com/orchids-native-to-virginia/

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