Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) at my cabin are winter birds. Not to be seen during the warmer months. UNLESS you go up the mountain to the higher elevations. To the ridge tops of the Appalachian Mountains where these Juncos reside year round. Winter and summer. They along with some that live in the west, don’t migrate at all.
And see those seed heads? Left in the gardens for the birds.
A bit of rain in the forecast. An opportunity for me and my camera to get out. Take advantage of the change of light, as colors seem to intensify, brighten.
This photo, in the rain with that change of lighting, Winged Sumac (Rhus capallina).
So much to see. So much to capture in pixels.
In Virginia, Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) are here year round. They’ll occasionally roam from one location to another in search of their favorite fruits or berries in large groups. A behavior that makes me think of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings. Wandering to find their preferred foods.
I must get busy and clean out their houses. They’ll be shopping around for a place to build their nests soon. Egg laying begins late February into March which will be here in a flash.
I’m left with fewer hints as to what a tree is, now that it is meterological winter. Leaves are gone. Hackberry (Celtis occindentalis) gives me a couple other clues though.
Often Hackberry berries stay on the tree until early spring when hungry migrating birds return from their wintering grounds, but for the most part I don’t depend on those berries for identification.
One thing I depend on for winter identification of Hackberry is the Hackberry Petiole Gall which to the casual observer might appear to be berries, but these are the galls where the nymphs of Hackberry Petiole Gall Pysllid develop. Larger than the berries, more woody. They’re quite a common sight.
And as with many trees, the bark is something that can be used as identification. Often Hackberry’s bark makes me think of a 3D topo map. The younger the tree, the fewer ridges will be found, with much more “flatland.”
A tree that I love to find with its make believe topographic map bark.
This was just the beginning. My very VERY favorite winter of all time. This image is from December 5, 2009, and like I said, it was just the beginning. From just the beginning of meteorological winter, not even the beginning of astronomical winter, to the end of winter, that winter of 2009 – 2010, 72 inches of snow fell upon my cabin in the mountains.
During that winter and those snow events VDOT took excellent care of us, though they certainly had their challenges. This is how our road looked – often.
72 inches of snow in one winter — pure joy!
Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens). The perfect Christmas tree. An elegant beauty.
Purchase a small live tree. Plant it in the yard after it serves its first showing as the grand tree. Wait a few years for it to grow, cut it, bring it in, and let it have its second grand tree event.
While it’s in the yard it will be a showpiece, particularly in snow and ice!
Native to the central and southern Rocky Mountains. Lots of ice and snow there.
Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) is a perennial, evergreen plant that gets its name from either being green through the Christmas holidays, or from the resemblance of individual leaflets to Christmas stockings. There isn’t snow up here right now but I thought this an appropriate photo to illustrate that the plant is evergreen.
Like most ferns, Christmas Fern likes shade and grows in clumps from a central rhizome. Growing from 1.5 to 2 feet tall. It’s native to eastern North America and is a very common sight up here in these mountains.
As spring approaches I look for the new sprouts of fronds, called fiddleheads. They enchant me, looking like they’re dancing as they emerge from the soil, all set to take on another year of growth.
Take your time as you walk through the woods. There’s no rush and there’s so much to see.
If I had been in a rush on this day, I may have missed the sight of mushrooms growing out of a hole way up in the tree. Something I would not have expected to see. Take your time as you walk through the woods. There’s so much to see.
The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) is a woodpecker that is only in my woods during the winter. Showing off a speckled look, rather than the striking black, white and red that I usually see on woodpeckers.
They leave marks on tree trunks that look to be a cryptic messages to some other part of the natural world. Rows of dots carefully placed.
These dots though are actually sap wells. The Sapsuckers drill the sap wells into the xylem tissue, where the sap is transported from roots up to branches of a tree. They dine on the sap, as well as insects that are attracted to, and often trapped in the sap.
I love to see the designs that they create in the tree trunks. So neat and tidy.
It always surprises me when I discover a mushroom growing in late autumn, but as you can see by my photos, it does happen. This one is Nitrous Bonnet (Mycena leptocephala). A fungus with a conical cap that can get to be just a bit over an inch in diameter. That cap has a raised center which in the mushroom world is called an umbo.
This species of fungus is sabrobic which means it feeds on dead or decaying organic matter, and in this particular case it feeds on conifer needles, cones and sticks on the forest floor. And indeed, if you look very carefully, you’ll see that these mushrooms have emerged among pine needles.
This look at the gills pleased me with its gray color. Not a color that I would have expected.
This blog gives no information about the edibility or toxicity of any of the mushrooms that are written about.