June 9, 2025
Just the beginning of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) bloom time. A native flower that attracts all sorts of pollinators. Bees, hummingbirds, skippers, and butterflies like this Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele).
Ah spring and summer! So many splendid flowers!
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June 8, 2025
Butterflies are usually brightly colored creatures. This one not so much. But it is not a moth. Grayish-tan with eyespots that may be for startling predators. A Little Wood Satyr (Megisto cymela).
The word “little” in its common name is appropriate. Its wingspan is just 1.5″ to 1.75″. The host plant of the Little Wood Satyr is various species of grasses. As adults they rarely go to flowers but rather feed on oozing tree sap, rotten or fermenting fruit, solid animal wastes, and dead animals.
A butterfly that is native to eastern North America.
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June 7, 2025
A small bird with a long tail. Its total length, just 4″ to 5″, weighing a quarter of an ounce, about the weight of a nickel. Here, perching on the ferns of asparagus. A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) sitting still for a split second for a photo. They seem to always be in motion.
They are here during breeding season. Eating insects, insect eggs, and spiders, sometimes catching the insects while in flight. The males are great participants in family life, working to help build their cup-shaped nests, helping to incubate the eggs, and helping to raise and feed the babies.
These little birds seem to enjoy collecting their meals in the vegetable garden. I hope they sense my appreciation.
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June 6, 2025
We discovered this tiny bunny as we were roaming. It was deep in the grass, though I’m sure, it was thinking the grass was certainly not deep enough. Trying ever so much to become invisible. Trying very hard to tell us, “You can’t see me!” We continued our wandering after I got a picture. Leaving it alone to feel safe again.
Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus).
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June 5, 2025
Yum! Black Raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) native to eastern North America. Just beginning to ripen up here. They look quite similar to Allegheny Blackberries (Rubus allegheniensis) which also grow up here in the mountains.
Black Raspberries grow on bushes that have pale green stems and the berries are round, while Blackberries are longer than they are wide, and a bit larger than Black Raspberries. Another difference, Black Raspberries are hollow. Blackberries are solid. Black Raspberries also have a bloom similar to what is seen on Blueberries, though Blackberries do not have a bloom.
Yum, Black Raspberries are also sweeter than Blackberries.
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June 4, 2025
Today while out on an errand, a Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentia) was spotted alongside the road but past experience kept any help from occurring. Their necks are what gives them the specific epithet, serpentia, meaning “snake-like”. No matter how they are lifted, that head can come back and bite.
This image is of a baby Snapping Turtle that ambled through the yard a few years ago and decided to make my pond its home for a while. It was tiny compared to the one that was seen today.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Snapping Turtle and learning while it was living in the pond.
This turtle, like other turtles, has a shell called a carapace, over the top of their back. As it gets older it continues to get larger, generally being 8″ to 18.5″ long. Its tail is nearly as long as the carapace, and that muscular neck with the snapping mouth, that you must watch out for, is maybe 1/2 to 3/4 the length of the carapace. It’s a solitary creature whose life span is maybe 30 to 40 years.
This fun creature lived out there in the pond for 5 years. I have no idea where it went. Surely looking for another adventure.
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June 2, 2025
At the end of summer this is what you’ll see along the trails up here. The berries of Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum racemosum).
Go out right now though and you’ll see panicles (or clusters) of tiny flowers, maybe 5 to 250 of the flowers, making up a length of 4 to 6 inches.
Either singly or all standing proudly in a row. White or creamy colored just waiting to become the crimson berries of late summer and autumn to feed many birds and small mammals. Eating the berries and distributing the seeds here and there.
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June 1, 2025
Everyone needs a scarecrow don’t you think? Mine, made of a raincoat, garden gloves, and an old hat. Here he is showing us the view.
And he’s providing a resting place for a Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) who’s enjoying the tour.
At the end of the tour the Goldfinch gets some thistle seed.
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May 31, 2025
Caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio polyxenes). A butterfly that can be found in a wide area, southern Canada to northern South America, most commonly east of the Rocky Mountains. These caterpillars enjoy eating plants of the carrot family (Apiaceae). Plants such as parsley, dill, Queen Anne’s Lace, fennel, and carrots,
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May 30, 2025
Most unusual to see a green butterfly. I’m not sure there are any that are native to Virginia except for this one, a Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus). It’s actually native to most of the continental United States, parts of southern Canada, and northern Mexico. Here in Virginia its host plant is the Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginana).
A tiny thing with a wing span of just an inch. But it’s GREEN!
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