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Evasive Agaric
Evasive Agaric (Crepidotus versutus). A very small mushroom with a cap that is kidney shaped, fan shaped or circular. The color is white to gray, with an edge that is scalloped. Small or very small. Its cap grows to be one inch wide. These fungi are saprobes, decomposers of dead and decaying wood, leaves, and…
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Another Winter Butterfly
This is a Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) which is another butterfly that you might see fluttering about in the sun on a warm winter day. A butterfly that overwinters as an adult, but enjoys those days when the temperature rises. Like the few other butterflies that overwinter as adults, the Mourning Cloak finds a crevice…
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Time Will Fly
As I look through my photographs from last winter, January 2022, along with my notes of the weather, I am surprised at how quickly spring descended upon me and the gardens around my cabin. I first notice that snow was plentiful in the first weeks of January. Nine inches on January 3rd, three inches on…
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Winter Butterfly
While many butterflies here in Virginia will migrate to warmer climates to survive the winter, others will stay put and survive as eggs, larvae, or chrysalides. Still others will overwinter as adults. They will find a crack in a boulder, under a piece of bark on a tree, or even wedge behind a shingle on…
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Flicker Reflection
This morning at the pond. A Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) takes a sip and creates a reflection in the little pond. One of the first things that was done here at the cabin after move in took place. A human made pond installed in one of the gardens. A place for inspiration. A marvelous thing…
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Blackhaw Drupes
Drupes are much like berries – but different. A drupe is a fruit that has a pulpy outside with a single seed inside that is surrounded by a stony exterior. They come in many sizes, large such as peach, small such as Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium). Blackhaw drupes are eaten by Chipmunks, Squirrels, Hermit Thrush, Cardinals,…
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Enjoying New Year’s Day With A Tufted Titmouse
I’m enjoying the first day of 2023 with my green tea, in a mug that was given to me by a treasured friend. A mug with a Tufted Titmouse gracing front and back. And appropriately I’m making notes on the birds that I’m seeing out my windows, coming by for the seeds that I’ve put…
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All The BEST That 2023 Has To Offer
The clocks are ticking away. Making 2022 soon vanish. Turning the page to 2023. WISHING YOU THE BEST YEAR EVER! _______________________________________________ If you would like to receive my daily blog posts, sign up here!
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The Event Was Recorded
Bright and early this morning I happened to look out the bedroom window. Not far away, a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), worked away at a fallen tree rotting on the ground. This woodpecker is quite large, the size of a crow. It’s one that I see quite often flying from one tree to another, or…
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Northern Cardinals In The Garden
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). A frequent visitor to my feeders and in other parts of this world they’re found in southeastern Canada, throughout eastern US from Maine to Minnesota, to Texas, New Mexico, southern Arizona, southern California, and south through Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. I think of Northern Cardinals as birds that eat seeds and fruit, but during the summer they also eat…