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Pressing My Luck – Bears
Every year it is always the same. I take great pleasure in feeding the birds and would do it all year long except there is the Bear (Ursus americanus) issue. They come out of their winter slumber focused on finding a quick meal. Though not the repast that would totally fill a several hundred pound…
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Yellow-breasted Chat
It’s been several years now since one of my favorite summer birds has come by for the season to brighten me. I would swear they are ventriloquists. Sounding like one was here but really there. Or sounding like one was high in the tree top but no one was there at all. And their sound.…
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Yellow Trillium
Not quite native to Virginia though I’m quite pleased to have these flowers blooming in my gardens. Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum) is native to Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky. Some speak of a lemony scent. It must be mighty subtle. I don’t detect it. The plants emerge from underground rhizomes which will spread slowly if…
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Rose-breasted Grosbeak
What a special treat just three years ago when I saw my first Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (Pheucticus ludovicianus). They were migrating through but they took their sweet time giving me great opportunities to observe and admire them. They were wonderful models for me too. Late April until early May is when they’ve arrived. Three years in…
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Scarlet Tanager
They winter in South America. And their little wings carry them a humongous number of miles to get to their breeding grounds in eastern North America. Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea). Male Scarlet Tanagers are that perfect color combination of brilliant red and black. Smart birds, they’re my favorite colors to wear too. The females are…
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Summer Resident Has Arrived – Indigo Bunting
I’m delighted! This morning I spotted my first Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) in its brilliant garb. It didn’t look tired in the least, although it has just completed a trip from northern South America. Using the stars in the night sky to navigate.
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Philadelphia Fleabane
Small daisy like flowers. Perfect for a party for fairies that are surely celebrating spring right about now. Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) is blooming in lovely bunches along the roadside coming up my mountain. This Fleabane is a biennial or short-lived perennial. Perhaps a bit tall for fairies, it’s nine to thirty inches tall. Its…
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Silver-spotted Skipper
Silver-spotted Skippers (Epargyreus clarus) are thoroughly enjoying collecting the nectar and pollen from blueberry blooms. In the upper left corner of this photo you can see little blueberries just beginning their growth.
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American Lily of the Valley
The Lily of the Valley that we all know, the one that used to grow in our Moms’ gardens is a native of Asia and Europe, European Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis). But there is a native too, though this designation of “native” and it being a different species is not agreed upon by…
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Juniper Hairstreak
How often do you get to see a green butterfly? For me, not often at all. Actually only once. And here it is. This is a Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus gryneus). Their host plant in my area, the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia, is Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). The Juniper Hairstreak overwinters as a…