It’s a first for the vegetable garden. Garlic (Allium sativum). Planted several months ago. It’s been a learning experience to see it coming up, green leaves reaching for the sky. And now flower buds atop their stems, bending in unison, Rockettes style. Who would have thought that garlic dances in the garden?!
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In bloom right now, in my woods. Such a treat to see. Striped Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata). Small, evergreen plants that grow from rhizomes. With the blooms, the Striped Wintergreen is 6 to 10 inches tall. The plant without its flowers is 3 to 5 inches tall.
Those beautiful evergreen leaves are thick, waxy-looking, a blue-green color which becomes darker as the leaves mature. A distinctive central white vein on the larger leaves give the plant a lovely unmistakeable look.
The blooms seem to be looking down, making me think of old fashioned street lamps, lighting the way for all the woodland fairies.
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Yucca filamentosa. They’re in bloom right now. Today was mostly a gray day. I wanted to get some photos, so I waited until the sun was out a bit, to add that extra bit of color to the air. My camera and I stepped out when things looked just right.
Having these plants on my back hill makes me think of when I lived in southern New Mexico, where Yuccas are a common sight and something that I loved to see and sketch. Such a different environment from the lush vegetation I was used to here in the East, absolutely breathtaking. Though quite similar to the Yuccas of New Mexico, this particular species is native to the southeastern United States.
Here you can see the filaments that are part of this Yucca species name.
During an ice storm there is magic in those filaments.
An ice storm, an event that is right up there with bloom time, as one of my favorites.
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It’s now the mating season of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum), which is from late spring through late summer. These birds perform a beautiful ritual which has the birds dancing-hopping back and forth, and the male presenting his chosen one with a berry, a bit of fruit, a flower petal or an insect. They will take turns in their hopping dance, passing the gift back and forth. The female will, after several dances indicate her interest by swallowing the gift.
Quite the breathtaking thing to witness. Nature is amazing.
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An picture of a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), enjoying the berries that are getting ripe around my cabin. But looking at it makes me wonder why this one doesn’t have the characteristic red waxy wing tips that I see so often.
Those red wax tips on the Waxwing’s secondary feathers are red thanks to a carotenoid pigment, astaxanthin. As the young bird adds years to its age those waxy tips begin to grow in. Younger birds have 0 to 5 red waxy tips, as the bird ages it gets between 5 to 9 red tips, and birds with 9 or more are older. These red tips seem to play a part in mate selection.
By the way, secondary feathers are located at the bottom of a bird’s wings. They are the inner flight feathers which aid in soaring and lift in flight.
Here is another Cedar Waxwing in the blueberry bushes, an older one with red waxy tips on its secondary feathers.
So glad that the birds enjoy the blueberries as much as I do!
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An interesting insect that perches on vegetation along the edges of ponds, marshes, and slow-moving rivers. Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia).
Perching on vegetation, watching, waiting, to swoop out to capture mosquitos and other small flying insects in mid-air.
A good insect to have around
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Dinner was being cleared off the table, when I spotted from the kitchen window, a Box Turtle in the vegetable garden. Right away I went out with my camera. I always take a photograph of any Box Turtle I come upon, whether I’m here at home or driving down the road. If it’s on the road, it’s most important to help it across, putting it on the side where it’s heading. The photos are because the patterns on the shells are unique to each individual and it is easy to tell one from the other. That helps to know if I’m seeing the same one time and again.
The surprise though, was there were two turtles out there in the garden. Both of them were digging away with their back legs, preparing to lay their eggs. One would have not been a surprise. But two!
Box Turtles lay their eggs mid-May to late June and into July, depending on the elevation. Two to eight eggs in a clutch. These turtles don’t usually begin breeding until they are about ten years of age. And with some luck they will live to be Fifty to One Hundred or more years of age.
The home range of a Box Turtle is about two hundred fifty yards or less, whether male or female, old or young. Their home ranges often overlap with no antagonism. Given the turtles inability to travel long distances leave them where you find them. Don’t pick one up and move it to another location.
I’m looking forward to discovering more little Box Turtles in the future.
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This afternoon the hummingbird feeders needed to be refilled, so I took a break to wash them out and put new syrup in them. Much to my surprise, I spotted the smallest walkingstick I’ve ever seen, on one of the ant guards. This is a Northern Walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata). Two pictures for you, one for scale with the postage stamp, the other enlarged a bit so you might be able to get a better look.
Here an adult Northern Walkingstick in the same stance as the nymph, folding their front legs up against their antennae, basically saying, “You are not seeing me. You are seeing a stick.”
A Northern Walkingstick hatches from its egg, as a nymph, and indeed they are very small. As they grow, they shed their outer skin, allowing more growth. This happens several times as they grow into an adult. As an adult, a male reaches about 3 inches in length, and a female will grow to about 3.75 inches. They become adults at 3 months to a year, with a lifespan of about 2 years.
In North America, 30 species of walkingsticks have been identified. All of these 30 species are clever masters of camouflage. Indeed, they do look like the stick that is included in the Northern Walkingstick’s name.
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A skipper that is mighty easy to recognize thanks to its large bright white spot on the ventral view of its wings.
This skipper is found in a large part of the United States into southern Canada. Adults sip the nectar of many different flowers.
Skippers are classified together with true butterflies since they fly during the day. They are different from butterflies though, because of their fat, furry bodies.
The Silver Spotted Skipper is a skipper that I see often, keeping me company, as I hike up my mountain.
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What a lovely color. This is Venus’ Looking Glass (Triodanis perfoliata), in the Bellflower family (Campanulaceae). Its leaves clasp the stem, giving it another common name, Clasping Bellflower.
Native to North and South America, ranging from Canada to Argentina. Pollinators attracted to Venus’ Looking Glass are small bees, and small butterflies and skippers.
This annual herbaceous plant grows unbranched between 4 and 10 inches tall. Blooms appear in late spring into early summer. Very small seeds are wind dispersed. Much to my delight that wind has brought a couple of those seeds into the vegetable garden and now I’ve got purple blooms along with the tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers.