Posts Tagged 'Birds'

Blue Water Lily with yellow cente

Yesterday I awoke at 6am with crashing thunder and multiple lightening strokes headlining the arrival of the first rainstorm in 29 days.  It was quite a storm with over 5000 people losing power in Frederick(not us) but most importantly for our yard was the total of more than an inch of rain.  It was followed by more rain in the afternoon and then again last night.  It is hard to believe how dry it has been here.  The ground has been cracking, trees losing their leaves,  and plants have been dying left and right.  Gardening has been discouraging on the whole when you see so many of the spring’s investments disappearing.  It’s not just that it’s been dry but the temperatures have been high enough to make it really unpleasant to go outside.

Two weeks ago a posting from Melissa at Garden Shoots reminded me that last year I had made a photography trip out to the sunflower fields that Maryland plants near the Potomac River.  I had heard that the fields were not up to last years display but I remembered that the Indigo Buntings were plentiful last year and I decided to journey out to the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area to see what I could find.

The field was full of dried out stunted sunflowers that were well past the peak of flowering.

Very tired collection of sunflowers

I spent a couple of hours there hoping to see the Indigo Buntings that were so plentiful last year.  I thought I imagined I might have maybe possibly seen one or two in the distance.  But the field was loaded with Goldfinches and House Finches.  There were hundreds.

Goldfinch on sunflower

A very red House Finch

I did see a Pileated Woodpecker in flight across the field.

Pileated Woodpecker in flight

After two hours of waiting and watching on a very hot day I packed it up and decided to go find my own water.  On the way back from the Potomac I stopped at Lilypons Water Gardens.  Their 250 acres of ponds are filled with flowering water lilies at this season.  It was refreshing to see so many flowers at once and what a contrast to the dry tired field of sunflowers.

Pond of Fuschia-colored Water Lilies

You can wander freely about the grounds and it’s a great spot for photography.  Wildlife abounds as you would expect with so much water and lush vegetation.

Dragonflies mating

Swallowtail at Lilypons

I have to confess that I don’t really know my Water Lilies at all.  I’m a water gardener wannabe.  I could guess at some of the varieties I was looking at but I’m probably on safer ground just to cite the colors.  Suffice it to say, Lilypons is worth a visit if you are in the area.  And if you aren’t, they have a mail order catalog.

Yellow-white Water Lily

Yellow Water Lily

Lilac Water Lily

Pink Water Lily with reflection

Red-Shouldered Hawk that greeted me yesterday morning

Though the mulberries are almost gone, I still try to start the days with a half-hour watching the birds in the mulberry and cherry trees.  Yesterday morning as I was rubbing the sleep out of my eyes on the way out to the garden I heard the characteristic cry of the Red-Shouldered Hawk.  And there on the garden fence, not 25 feet away was this awesome hawk.  The cry is actually a mating call so that I was probably just a distraction.  Nonetheless the look I got was an irritated one.

Red-Shouldered Hawk getting ready to launch

Red-Shouldered Hawk takes off, note the talons

You would think that this would make the birds of the neighborhood lie low.  But moments later I witnessed this same hawk getting dive-bombed by this Eastern Kingbird (no bigger than a Robin).

Eastern Kingbird atop cherry

Just two days earlier I had seen a family of Great Crested Flycatchers amongst the Cherry trees.

Great Crested Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher youngster

So despite the fact that I missed the last couple of weeks of the mulberry/cherry season there is still a lot of bird watching to do — and it remains rewarding to get up and out in the morning.

Yesterday also yielded a Swallowtail hanging out in the Agastache ‘Tutti-Fruiti’.

Swallowtail on Agastache

Swallowtail fully spread out on the Agastache 'Tutti-Fruiti'

Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) in the early morning

One of the delightful treats in the early morning on my photographic rounds looking for the birds of the season is seeing the Flax that persist from planting wildflowers in previous years.  These are a lovely shade of blue that is present only in the mornings and then the flowers close by mid-afternoon.  The plants are quite rugged and compete well with the grasses.

The shade of blue in the flax flowers matches that of the bluebirds that I saw this week on the garden fence.  It was the first really good look at the bluebirds that I have gotten this year.

Female Bluebird

And right next to the bluebirds were the first of the Bearded Iris coming into bloom in the long row that we have planted just for picking.

Bearded Iris starting to bloom

Twenty feet away is a little patch of columbine that came from seeds via the American Horticultural Society seed exchange last year.

Columbine 'AHS seed exchange'

I think these will be a favorite for years to come.

Another patch of blue is the Jacob’s Ladder that is just now appearing in the Camellia garden.

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum)

Well, in addition to the beauty of these flowers and birds, I had another reason for focusing on blue this evening.  I received an email from Seneca Hills indicating that they were going to be leaving the retail business.  This was just two days after my receiving another delightful order of rare delights (a white flowering Glaucidium palmatum and a Hylomecon japonica).  It made me sad to see this transition even though I know that small businesses, like gardens, depend upon an intensity of effort that is usually transitory in nature.  Ellen Hornig, the owner, ran an excellent nursery with great plant stock and fine service.  I for one will be reminded of Ellen Hornig and Seneca Hills every time I look at one of those primulas or peonies that they have contributed to our garden.  I wish her all the best.

I was crouched down underneath the Witch Hazel today trying for a shot of the yellow flowers against a pretty blue sky when I heard a commotion in the forsythia bushes next to me.  I glanced over just in time to see a hawk about 4 feet away from me.  It had apparently just struck a smaller bird.  We stared at each other through the branches for a moment and then I finally had the presence of mind to raise my camera, but too late!  He launched with the small bird in talons.  I took pictures as best I could having neither the right lens or the time to look through the viewfinder.  As it turns out in looking at the pictures later I believe that the small bird was a cardinal — the beak is a giveaway.  It was amazing how fast the hawk could fly even carrying the other bird.  They are certainly the masters of the sky.  I can’t tell which hawk it is from the pictures, but something tells me I will get another chance to see in the future…

Hawk with Cardinal

Hawk w cardinal as he flys away

And oh yes, I did get the witch hazel against the blue sky….

Chinese Witch Hazel (Hamamelis mollis) against the blue sky

Well, here we are starting off a new year with Garden Blogger Bloom Day.  Sad to say there aren’t many flowers to show from a tour around the property.  Certainly the most spectacular on site is a very nice Moth Orchid growing inside the house.

Stripped Phalaenopsis

As is true with most of our orchids they blossom with incredible staying power, 4-6 weeks I would guess, and the flowers will stop you in your tracks.

It’s a good thing we have the orchids going on because outside there is not much to show this month.  I took a pretty good walk around and saw only the same little snowdrop that has been out for nearly a month now.

Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) in January

Otherwise it was a lot of promising buds but no cigars (to borrow a phrase).  We’ve had a lot of freezing or below days that have only just ended with 50 degrees yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  One warm spell has trouble making up for a lot of frigid temperatures.  Things like the hellebores and quince are just waiting in the wings and I see lots of daffodils sticking up their little green spikes.  Scary to think that we are not even at the middle point of the winter as far as the ground temperature goes.  That could make one start to plan a trip to Florida for spring training (which I plan to do this year…).

Of course even when the plants are dormant many of the birds are still here to keep us company.  The red Cardinals are always a comfort when we get up in the morning.  But today I was noting how nicely even the House Finches are colored when they are not side by side with the Cardinals.

House Finch in January

Another surprising element to me is just how much color is left on the male Goldfinches even in the dead of winter.  Is it always this way and am I just paying more attention?

Goldfinch in January

Along with the warm weather we have had a couple of amazing sunsets.  I sat outside and watched this one with a cup of tea last night.  Those red adirondack chairs on the pasture hillside are wonderful for contemplation until the sun goes down and it gets cold enough to chase me inside.  May your winter seed catalog dreams match glowing colors of the sunset…

January sunset

Cooper's Hawk looking back

This Hawk was sitting outside in the maple tree when I went out this morning.  It was not much concerned about me, but seemed to be keeping a keen eye on the yard.  Needless to say there weren’t many other birds hanging around.  I would have guessed Broad-winged Hawk from the markings, but they should have long since migrated for the winter.  This one was not large but showed every sign of living hereabouts.  So my best guess is immature Cooper’s Hawk.

Wow!  Did the holidays just race right by.  I started several postings that just never got to fruition.  First there was the Dec 20th snowfall that exceeded all expectations.

The big snow of December 20th

I had noticed a little snowdrop making an early appearance late on the evening of the 19th and thought (naively) that I would get out early in the morning and snap a picture before the snow got too deep.  Nope.  By the time I got up the snow was deep and getting deeper.  It was a beautiful fluffy snow that was followed by sunshine.  Perfect for sledding.

Our sledding hillside

But when the snow melted after Christmas that little snowdrop was still there looking happy as a clam.

Our first snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis)

And it’s being joined by several others

More Snowdrops on the way

The temperatures have been mostly in the thirties daytime and twenties at night so I was surprised to see that the Hellebores are also showing growth.  Ivory Prince in particular seems to be well advanced in putting out its flower buds.

Buds forming on Helleborus x 'Ivory Prince'

I can see many instances of the daffodils putting up green tips as well as leucojum and meadowsweet.

New growth from the Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

But before I could fully enjoy these newly emerging shoots I had one more task from my Fall planting to accomplish.  The weather had kept me from planting the last of my December discount order from Brent and Becky.  So last Wednesday, just before the year ended I went out on a freezing day and put in 50 daffodils (Beautiful Eyes).  The ground was frozen on top but once I broke through the surface with the auger it was easy to put in one last swath of daffodils.  The hardest part was kneeling on the frozen ground.

The last daffodils planted for the season

Though I certainly pushed these to the limits of the planting season, I was ready to plant more when I finished.  But I guess I should focus on the seed catalogs next.

The other planting was our Christmas tree.  Here’s what it looked like for Christmas on the inside.

Christmas tree at night

And then after planting at the bottom of the 2nd pasture.

2009 Christmas tree planted

Now to those seed catalogs  :)

It’s time for the monthly Picture This photo contest at Gardens Gone Wild.  The theme for November is “End of the Line”.  You can imagine how this leads to lots of visual interpretations featuring change of season, last fruits, flowers, or leaves, or just pathways or roads going off to infinity.  I wrestled with various options including the following shot of Beth hiking down the entry road at Worthington Farm, a part of Monocacy National Battlefield.

Beth at Worthington Farm

And then there was the migration of tree swallows all perched on a telephone wire at Lilypons.

Tree swallows on a wire

And then of course when we think of migrations and change of seasons the Canadian Geese surely come to mind.

Line of Honkers

Of course the other kind of line that we all get involved in is the traffic jams that are part of daily life.  I couldn’t help but imagine a traffic jam when I saw these two caterpillars both coming to the end of the branch they were chewing on.

Traffic jam

But as I thought about the theme in terms of the change of season nothing brought home the dramatic end of another growing season than looking at this Cardinal caught in the aftermath of an ice storm.  This will be my entry for November.  End of the line Dear Reader …

Ice Cardinal

Crocus speciosus 'Albus'

We finally saw one of the two Fall Crocus varieties that we planted in September.  I had just about given up on them when lo and behold there they were popping through the grass.  Leaves have just about finished dropping from the trees and the nights are getting chillier but the days still have gone into the 60′s on occasion.  Enough so that some plants seem to think we are actually moving to Spring, skipping Winter altogether.

A highlight is the Camellia Japonica ‘Spring Promise’ that we got from Logee’s last Spring.  It is still a small plant but covered with buds that are bursting into bloom.

Camellia Japonica 'Spring Promise'

Spring Promise is one of the Ice Angel series of Camellias that were specifically bred to extend the Camellia range up into zone 6 territory.  I’m very impressed by this one so far although it seems to have put most of its first year of growth into producing flowerbuds rather than new branches.  It has the big leaves of the Japonicas rather than the smaller leaves of the Sasanquas.

Some of the other plants are also showing spring-like growth.  The Anemone Coronaria has put up new leaves in the rock garden.  Maybe this is why they don’t usually last long in this area.

Anemone coronaria leaves

I also see that the Star Magnolia and the Flowering Quince, two reliable harbingers of Spring are fattening their buds.

Star Magnolia bud

The forecast for today calls for nearly 60 degrees and no frost is predicted in the ten day forecast so I think that some of these spring-like fantasies are likely to continue…

We also had a visit from a hawk yesterday that reminded me that I need to clean the windows and remove the screen so I can take better pictures in the wintertime…