Wild Strawberries Soon

Wild Strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) blooming all over today. Beautiful flowers with five, snow white petals, and bright yellow, pollen laden anthers.

Soon to become strawberries with a most remarkable flavor. The size of the fruit though, at just half an inch wide and half an inch long, makes harvesting for anything serious, to be much too labor intensive. Makes me think of sipping the delicious nectar from a Japanese Honeysuckle flower. One is just enough.

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Downy Yellow Violet

When I first came upon yellow violets, long ago when I first started roaming the woods up here on my mountain, it was such a surprise. Aren’t violets only purple, or purple and white, or blue.

These are Downy Yellow Violets (Viola pubescens). Not unusual at all. It was just a learning experience for me, something that happens every day. And these Downy Yellow Violets please me each spring as they emerge from the leaf litter to add color to the woodland.

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Earth Day 2023

Today, Earth Day 2023. Today and everyday, do what you can to help keep this planet, Earth, hospitable for its inhabitants.

To see last year’s Earth Day 2022, go to brendaclem.com/earth-day-2022/ where you’ll see 12 birds that just like we humans, depend on this planet.

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Philadelphia Fleabane

Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus), is blooming all along the forest edges up here right now. It’s native to North America and found in all the states including Alaska and Hawaii, and in Canada.

The name fleabane comes from the misconception that it will repel pests. It is a flower that is quite attractive to pollinators. Here a Honeybee (Apis) demonstrates that point.

There are about 170 species of Fleabane (Erigeron) on this continent. Philadelphia Fleabane can be identified by finding its clasping leaves, as seen in the above photo.

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Wild Geranium Time Of Year

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum), a charming native, herbaceous perennial plant blooming all around. It’s along the trails up here, along the edges of the dirt road going up the mountain, and in my gardens where it is welcome. A soft magenta flower that grows from a rhizome, the plant growing to 1 to 2 feet tall. Here it poses with an Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas), which makes its first appearance of the season as the Wild Geranium begins to bloom.

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A Mimic

The Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) is a bird that resides up here during the summer, but one that I seldom see. It enjoys eating insects that it finds in leaf litter under dense, low growing shrubs. It will also eat fruits and seeds.

Due the presence of Black Bears (Ursus americanus), I normally don’t have bird feeders out while the thrashers are around, while the bears are active. I do have lots of blueberry bushes though, which brings the thrashers into areas where I know I can find interesting birds.

Brown Thrashers are in the family, Mimidae, which is a group of birds that are recognized for their vocalizations, and their capacity to imitate many birds and other noises that they hear as they go about their lives. The Brown Thrasher is indeed an excellent songster and can repeat as many as 2,000 different songs. As it sings, it repeats each song twice, a tip for me, to its identity.

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Roadrunner

Another visit to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, Three Rivers, New Mexico, and an opportunity to get many images of one of my very favorite birds. The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), state bird of New Mexico.

All these photos are the same bird, though with slightly different color ways. Its feathers are iridescent and vary depending on the light that hits those feathers.

The Greater Roadrunner is native to the southwestern United States and central Mexico, and it does not migrate.

The Roadrunner, of course, is known for its running abilities, running up to 26 miles per hour. The bird can fly but its method of choice is running, for chasing after its dinners of insects, small mammals, lizards and snakes (even rattlesnakes). They’ll also eat things that don’t require much speed, seeds, fruits, prickly pear cactus, and carrion.

See those feet? Two toes forward and two toes back, leaving “X” footprints.

What a treat it was to get these images. My favorite place, my favorite bird!

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A Traveler

He showed up at lunch today. Gulping down the syrup as if this male had traveled long distances, which he certainly has. The very first of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) to arrive at my feeders.

Now dinner has come and gone. There was a female traveler who came to the feeder while we were eating. And then a male. The same one? A new one? No telling. Two or three of these little birds have arrived today. Absolutely welcome. Let the hummingbird circus begin.

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Tiny Iris

Such a pretty flower but quite small. Reaching just 3 to 6 inches tall. Dwarf Crested Iris (Iris cristata).

There are 28 Iris species native to the United States. Iris cristata is one of them, found growing in the eastern and southern United States, on rocky, wooded slopes. Some are blooming right now in one of my gardens.

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Purple Pink Blue

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), herbaceous perennials, native to eastern North America. Painting its landscape with rich yummy purple, fading to pink and eventually turning to a lovely soft blue as its flowers mature.

A beautiful palette for spring, April and May.

By midsummer the blooms are gone, the plants disappear into the leaf litter of the woods. Gone until early next spring when the purples, pinks and blues emerge to paint the landscape all over again.

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