The Yellow-lined Owlet moth (Colobochyla interpuncta) does an incredible job of using camouflage to become nearly invisible.
Here’s another look. Same photo, just closer. Ah, there it is. See those two little legs sticking out?
The larvae of Yellow-lined Owlets feed on the leaves of persimmon trees and willows. Their adults are active during the months of April through September. They can be found in North America from Wisconsin to Nova Scotia south to Florida and Texas. Wonder how many of these moths I’ve walked past without even noticing them. Amazing camouflage job, Mother Nature.
A regular around here. The Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus). And here you get a glimpse of why it has its name, a very tiny smudge of red on its belly. They can be found in the eastern United States, from Florida north to Canada.
Red-bellied Woodpeckers eat fruit, nuts, seeds, berries (such as Poison Ivy berries shown above) and tree sap.
They also eat arboreal arthropods and other invertebrates which include caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, and the larvae of beetles. And you can add to the list, tree frogs, small fish, nestling birds and bird eggs, and Brown and Green Anoles. That’s a Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) in the photo above, which I photographed in Florida. There it is an invasive species, and seems to be everywhere. It is native to Cuba and the Bahamas. And these woodpeckers enjoy the suet that I put out for them here at my cabin.
It’s blooming now along roadsides where it grows aggressively. Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara). A plant that is native to Europe and parts of western and central Asia.
It is a plant that has flowers that resemble Dandelions, though if you’re quite familiar with Dandelions you’ll know that this is not one.
The leaves are totally different from Dandelion leaves, being roundish, or heart shaped, much like a Violet leaf with a slightly toothed edge. These leaves don’t even appear until the blooms are fading. You may spot some green leaves in this image, above. They are definitely Dandelion leaves. The leaves of the Coltsfoot have not emerged yet. They’re waiting for those flowers to fade.
Each stem, scaly, and bracted, bears a single flower.
The Coltsfoot seedheads too, resemble that of the Dandelion, though the seeds of the Coltsfoot are much more dense, and the tips of fluff have a coppery color which the Dandelion doesn’t have.
On the Internet I’m seeing many claims of medicinal qualities of Coltsfoot but along with those claims I am seeing statements that all parts of the plant contain alkaloids that are toxic to the liver. You’ll want to find something safer to use as a medicine.
In the past few weeks I’ve been seeing a few Goldfinches (Spinus tristis) coming to my feeders. They return for the seeds that I put out, hulled sunflower seed and nyjer seed.
They’re dressed in their winter garb. Males hardly recognizable without their brilliant yellow body feathers, and trademark, rich black foreheads. In the next month or so both both males and females will begin their molts to trade-in winter feathers for summer plumage. After the molt starts, in the in-between stage, they have a strange mottled look. This happens twice a year. Once in late winter and again in late summer.
This is what they’ll look like come May, but now just a single minuscule speck of yellow nestled in the green. The first hint I’ve seen of a Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) bloom this spring. These plants don’t grow tall but do spread out nicely. Don’t be concerned though, their growth is not aggressive.
Green and Gold is native to eastern North America. A plant that I’ve had on my back hill for many years. A low growing ground cover with opposite, hairy leaves. Those leaves are considered semi-evergreen. Here on my mountain the plants stay green through winter. Peak bloom time is in May and will produce flowers intermittently through autumn. Quite the pleasure to have just steps from the back door.
While most butterflies overwinter as eggs or pupae, there are a few including this one, the Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) that overwinter as adults. They wedge themselves in crevices in trees, behind loose bark, or under loose shingles away from the worst of winter.
You’ll see them out on trails on warm sunny days during the winter and early spring. Certainly the first of the butterflies in the spring.
See that bright white mark on the ventral side of the wing, the mark that if you use your imagination might look like a comma? That is why this butterfly is called “comma.”
My heart goes out to Ukraine. The news all day long is so devastating. So insane.
The national flower of Ukraine is the Sunflower. A flower that symbolizes happiness, optimism, honesty, longevity, peace, admiration, and devotion.
It’s believed that Sunflowers were planted and grown as a crop by American Indians in what is now New Mexico and Arizona around 5000 BCE.
Back in 1996, Ukraine, which had the third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, committed to total nuclear disarmament. In a ceremony to honor the occasion representatives from the US, Ukraine and Russia planted Sunflowers in locations where missile silos had been. Sunflowers were chosen because they absorb radioactive isotopes from the environment. These special flowers have also been planted at Chernobyl and Fukushima in order to help remove radioactive toxins.
My heart goes out to Ukraine, its land, its towns and cities, its ancient castles, its parks, its natural world and most of all its people.
Early March, meteorological spring and things are just beginning to stir. Flowers? Not many, certainly not many of the native sort but a few.
The Maples (Acer) in the lower elevations are acknowledging that spring is here.
Maple blooms are something that you’ve got to be aware of, or something that you’ve got to look for. They don’t demand attention.
They’re subtle. But wait, there’s more to come.
Once the little noticed flowers are finished, along comes the magical things we used to play with when we were children, the helicopters.
Throw them in the air and see what happens. That action, such fun, spinning as they drop, in order to fall far from the parent tree. These helicopters are technically termed samaras.
And which of these photos is different from all the rest? All the images with the exception of this last one are of Red Maples (Acer rubrum), native to eastern and central North America. The picture immediately above is of samaras of a Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). Silver Maples are native to the eastern and central US and southeastern Canada.
And the show is just beginning. Soon comes many beautiful shades of green, then OH MY, so many warm gorgeous colors of autumn.
Zion National Park, easily one of my favorite national parks. And in that park, rooted in a crevice in an incredible soaring rock wall, an Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) showing what determination can accomplish.
Ah, the change of seasons. How I love the change. How boring it would be if we only had one season. And now the beginning of meteorological spring. Soon flowers will be bursting forth with a cacophony of color. What a change from the impressive, black and white/pen and ink drawing, landscape of winter.
One of the first, a very early wildflower, Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), is native to eastern North America. It is a plant that I must remind myself to hunt for. It emerges, buds ready to open, well before I’m used to finding wildflowers blooming.
Here in the mountains of central Virginia, that crucial time is late March into early April. Each flower only lasts for a very few days, so searching at the right time is important.
As the flowers enjoy their few days, the leaves hold back, not to come into their own until the show is done for the blooms.
Then it becomes evident why this plant has the name, Twinleaf, with its appearance of butterfly wings or angel wings, a pair of leaves joined at the stem.
Then comes the seedpod which starts out with the look of a goblet and as it matures it takes on the appearance of a comicstrip character with a mouthful of seeds.
The Twinleaf has seeds that ants are attracted to. These seeds are carried by the ants to their nests, because they have a fatty appendages, called elaiosomes, which the ants feed to their larvae. In the process, the seeds remain intact and are discarded, where they often take root. This process, which is surprisingly common is called myrmecochory. And who would have thought – ant farmers!
