Spectacular Moon

If you haven't already seen it, go outside and see the moon tonight! The technical term is a waxing crescent, with 6% of the disk illuminated, according to the USNO website. I tried to get a photo, but am having trouble. Maybe I will have one by tomorrow!

Also saw an Eastern Bluebird at Fontenelle Forest today. That always makes my day!

Turkey Tracks and an Expected Storm

We went walking last weekend, while the sun was shining. There were a lot of tracks visible in the snow, but these were big enough to photograph:

Turkeys! Interestingly, one of my fellow walkers observed that there is a passing resemblance to the dinosaur footprints we saw in Colorado.

My mind is slipping into hibernation mode this evening. A big storm is predicted to come through tonight and tomorrow. It is overcast, and my dog has not shown any interest in moving around this afternoon.

At least fresh snow will mean fresh tracks to identify.

Juncos

Yesterday, a flock of juncos moved through my yard. I startled a couple of them as I stepped off the deck.

Another sure sign of fall. I have seen a few here and there over the past few weeks, but this was a small flock.

They are so small. Their beaks are impossibly tiny. And these were more sooty colored than black and white. I had to look closely to see where the grey ended, and the black began.

Summer heat

For the past week, the birdbath has been the most popular feature of our yard, as the heat index has consistently been over 100 degrees. I counted twelve young robins in the yard at one point, waiting to bathe. Sometimes they seem to wait patiently, at other times they seem like squabbling siblings jockeying for position.

We've had to refill it at least three times a day. They splash with abandon, sending a spray of droplets all over the lawn around the birdbath. Some of the robins walk around underneath, fluffing out their feathers in the wet grass. There is almost always one sitting on my statue of St. Francis's head, waiting for a turn. I don't think he'd mind.

The evenings have been spent watching fireflies and bats. These days the sun doesn't go down until almost 9pm. The days seem to go on forever. In spite of the heat, I'm treasuring these moments with the young birds, the fireflies, and the cicadas. Fall will be here all too soon.

My Wildflower!

With the help of some very nice folks at the Fontanelle Nature Center, and Neale Woods, I found my flower!

This is the flower I've been looking for: the purple prairie clover. More on that later!

It was a beautiful morning out at Neale Woods, but it quickly got very, very hot in the sun.

I was able to see many flowers today. Flowers like this one, which I know as claret cup, and the local guidebooks call purple poppy mallow:

And these mixed prairie flowers:

There were bees everywhere, sulphur butterflies, a monarch, and what looked like skippers. I also saw a bird that appeared to be a summer tanager in the woods, but I am not sure.

I saw where a deer or another large animal spent the night:

All in all, it was a beautiful morning. I took 150+ photos out there. Time to rest!

A Wordsworth day

I went in search of a particular wildflower today. More on that, later. Sometimes it can be a mistake to look for a very specific thing, because you may not find it! I did not find my flower. But I did find so much more.

It was hot and humid... there was a misty rain earlier today. It left behind heat and steam: just like Louisiana, where I am from. It felt familiar.

Walking along one of my favorite paths, I was serenaded by meadowlarks and robins. Swallows were swooping though the air around me, almost hitting my head. There was a strong smell of honey in the air, and I found the source:

Basswood. It made me think of forestry class, and one of my favorite professors. Good memories, there.

There were flowers, bees, and butterflies everywhere. What a joy, if you stop to look.

Although it was overcast, the scenes around me reminded me of the famous Wordsworth poem, "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud." I wasn't looking at daffodils, of course, but the joy was the same.

In another post, I'll try to catalog all I saw in list form. For today, though, I'm just basking in the joy.

More rain

It has been raining for what seems like weeks. The sun is beginning to come back out, but the prediction for tomorrow is more rain and storms.


The grass is happy. The perennial flowers in our yard are happy. The trees are also happy. But I have cabin fever!


I found an owl pellet on the patio the other day. Inside, I could see fur and a tiny bone.


Baby squirrels are running around the yard, irritating my dog, who doesn't understand why I don't just let her round them up. The last time I (accidentally) let her out while they were too far away from a tree, she was bitten on the nose, and it resulted in a call to the vet. Sorry, pup, no, though I realize that you have cabin fever, too!


There are lots of robins, grackles, finches and sparrows. Wildflowers flowering include violets, mock strawberry, and dandelions. The dayflower is not yet large enough. When the rain lets up, I'm headed out to look for more.

Warmer?

Is the warmer weather here to stay?

The 20th is the date of the last average freeze in my area. An average, of course, means it could still freeze. Gardeners tend to be gamblers, and will try to plant things out anyhow, and keep the row covers handy.

Tulips are coming up, cherry trees are flowering, and the dandelions are popping up everywhere. The color yellow is so welcome. I stopped to take a photo of one yesterday. A guy who was passing by must have thought I was a little off my rocker, stooping to take a picture of a dandelion. Later in the season, they definitely wear out their welcome. But right now, if you look closely enough, they are actually pretty.

The juncos are not as numerous in my yard. I'm seeing more robins and blackbirds.

And the morning's cup is spilling over with birdsong. It must be spring.

A chill in the air

How can it be the middle of September already? Somehow, August slipped by.

We have been very cool- the lows last week were not record-breaking, but low enough to cause my basil to break out in black, unhappy spots. The birds are now few and far between in the yard. Gone are the mixed-species flocks that fought over the small birdbath. It is very quiet now, except for the insistent calling of a blue jay.

And it is chilly. Layering a sweater or jacket is now a must. There is the smell of fall in the air: crispness and peat-scented humus. Fall has always been my favorite season.

The grass is still green, but some trees are showing a speck of color in the leaves. I am looking forward to the fall colors, especially in the maples.

Birds

Yesterday, I went outside to do a few sketches of the nuthatches. I ended up with seven pages of bird sketches in my sketchbook. It was a cool, but sunny day, and the birds were very active. I had to refill the birdbath twice, because it was in constant use.

Many of the sketches show preening behaviors. I love the way birds open out their wings to preen. The angles their wings and heads make, in relation to their legs, are just beautiful. This is something that seems to come out better in my sketches than in finished paintings. The behavior is so transient, and it is something you can recognize in a sketch, but it somehow, to me, seems too temporary a pose for a painting. Time spent sketching is never wasted time, though, because it all becomes visual knowledge that informs later paintings.  But I suspect I may end up doing a painting someday of the preening baby robins that visited yesterday. Five of them were jockeying for position at the birdbath.

Barred Owls, Bunnies, and Mosquitoes...

The mosquitoes have been fierce. Southern girl that I am, I was convinced that there must be a pool of standing water somewhere. The local paper, though, ran a story last weekend that said this particular type hatches out of the ground after flooding rains. Interesting, but annoying.

There are little Eastern Cottontail rabbits everywhere. I have never seen so many before! My mom pointed out that there must be a lack of predators, and I think she is right. In Tennessee, we heard coyotes howling at night, saw hawks sitting on fences and trees by day, and had lots and lots of big snakes. Other than the year the rabbits tried to make a warren under one of my giant rosebushes, I saw very few of them. Here, they are everywhere.

We saw a very large garter snake when we first moved in, but I have not seen it again. And I saw a Great Horned Owl mobbed by smaller birds last month.

Last night, though, we heard a Barred Owl. The voice was a bit different than we are used to hearing in Tennessee. And there was no reply, that we could hear. I still remember the wild chorus we heard one night in the Smoky Mountains, with Barred Owls calling back and forth over our tent.

So, to update the checklist:

Barred Owl (voice only), and
Downy Woodpecker

I love the cooler weather we are having. What a relief. I wish it would discourage the mosquitoes, though!