August 3, 2025
Just no telling when Mother Nature will allow her children to make an appearance. Even at a walkway leading to the Post Office. A seed made its way to a crack between the sidewalk and curb. The seed germinated and managed to live to produce a bloom of a rose-colored Zinnia (Zinnia).
Just can’t hold Mother Nature back.
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May 17, 2025
He came by just before lunch today. Splashing around in the birdbath to get those feathers clean. He had enough of the cleaning and went to a perch to shake off the water and get his feathers in order again. A male Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus).
Just a couple minutes later, she must have decided that the birdbath was empty. She came close to be sure, then with no more hesitation got in and started splashing around just like he had done. Then, like he did, she went to a tree branch, shook off the water, tidied up her feathers and flew off in the direction he had gone. A female Eastern Towhee.
I see the male Towhee from time to time but the female is unusual to see. Glad I got to see both of them today!
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March 28, 2025
March 27, 2025
Another solitary bird. One that is around but not obvious, since it enjoys dense shrubs and lots of leaf litter in which to search for their next meal of seeds or insects. An Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus). The male Towhee sings its song, an easy one to remember, “Drink your teeeeea!”
A bird that is here year round near my cabin.
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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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March 5, 2025
The Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis). Measures in at 3.1 to 4.7 inches in length. Mighty small and actually the smallest Wren in North America. They’re only here in my part of Virginia in the winter and they normally frequent areas more dense than I have here. It’s wonderful to see one and I’m not surprised to find it at the birdbath since they enjoy being in riparian areas.
While they’re here in the winter they are still determined to eat insects, spiders, and pupae but will resort to eating small berries and seeds.
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February 2, 2025
Two Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) in a Flowering Dogwood tree (Cornus florida) about two weeks ago, puffed up against the very cold temperatures. That day, and today, quite similar. High temperature for both days only creeping to the mid-thirties.
Cardinals are monogamous, staying together from the mating season through the winter. Some Cardinals though will find other mates after that time period. The rest, about eighty percent, stay together for their entire lives.
It is wonderful to see Cardinals during the winter. After seeing isolated pairs during the mating season, winter brings on a different scene with many gathering together to find food. I will easily see ten at a time when I put out hulled sunflower seeds.
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Wishing you and yours a very merry day!
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A Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) enjoying a relatively warm day, with temperatures dropping considerably in the following many days.
With water available, and not frozen, birds will continue to use the birdbaths for their bathing which is needed for their health. Bathing helps in preening their feathers. That in turn aids in aligning feathers for proper waterproofing and insulation.
This coming Sunday is the first day of meteorological winter with a forecast high of 40º and the following day there is a forecast of a high of 38º.
Welcome meteorological winter! Water de-icer required!
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This morning I was pleased to spot a female Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) at one of the birdbaths. I was quick and was able to get a picture. Glad of that. They don’t hang around waiting for me to get my camera ready. They’re here one minute and gone the next.
Eastern Bluebirds here are year-round residents but that’s the case for most of them in the United States. That range is the mid-Atlantic states, northern Florida, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas.
The female Eastern Bluebird has a pale dusty coloring. Pale gray-blue above and pale, pale rusty brown below.
I hope she’ll be back again soon.
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