A Black Raspberry Feast, and Other Early-Mid July 2023 sights

Let's go back to July! (It seems I'm currently four months behind with posting sights from our property -- that's actually not bad for me at this time of year!)

This was an especially great summer for wild berries around here. The Black Raspberry plants produced lots of fruit in first half of July, and in August the Blackberries produced just so many berries, way more than I've seen in previous years on our property. Of course, it helps that we're letting these plants gradually expand from the edges of the woods into the meadow and in a spot near the house; with more plants each year, it makes sense that there would also be more berries. But even the shaded plants in the woods produced many more berries this year than I usually see. In any case, and whatever the reason, this was the summer of berries, and there was plenty of fruit for both people and animals!

Happily, this year I also figured out that the Black Raspberry patch at the north side of our house is perfectly situated for picture-taking through an open window, with our house acting as a big blind. It's nice to be able to watch visiting creatures from nearby without scaring them away. On July 10, this Eastern Chipmunk spent several minutes grabbing and munching on Black Raspberries (what happened to your tail, chipmunk?):

Got one:

Here are some more pictures of this little fuzzy creature enjoying the Black Raspberry feast:

A family of Baltimore Orioles was making good work of these berries, too. This juvenile oriole helpfully posed in the open for a bit, showing off its orange/yellow-splotched breast and berry-stained beak:

This young bird's wings and back are so neat and pretty:

And it looks like this bird even got some sort of insect snack in between berries:

This Rose-breasted Grosbeak (an adult female? or juvenile?) came near the Black Raspberry patch during this photo-shoot, too, but I'm not sure whether it was actually eating the berries. I like how pretty this bird looks perched here among still-green Chokecherry berries and glowing white Common Elderberry blossoms in the background:

On July 13, I spent some more time watching the Black Raspberry patch through the open window, and although I didn't get any more pictures of birds eating berries, I did see this cute Chipping Sparrow very close up as it foraged in the mowed area of our lawn:

And this Tiger Swallowtail made a lovely sight on Purple Coneflower blossoms:

And I couldn't resist taking a picture of the nearby Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervivens), blooming for the first time after I planted it here last year; what a beautiful plant, and native (and yes, it was a big hit with the hummingbirds this year):

On July 19, this handsome American Robin perched on top of the Coral Honeysuckle's arbor with its beak full of honeysuckle berries, but these from the non-native bushes that grow invasively around here:

Here are a few other assorted sights from early-mid July.

A soaking wet Blue Jay emerging after a rainstorm on July 3:

A mother White-tailed Deer and one of her fawns (the second fawn was also nearby but outside of the frame) munching on the Black Raspberry plants (and maybe berries?) next to the house on the evening of July 6:

A juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the apple tree near our deck on July 10:

This young grosbeak had a nice grooming session while I was nearby, so here are several pictures of this bird in many interesting poses, showing its lovely yellow underarms and other usually hidden features of its costume:

I love having families of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks around our yard every summer, even though the young birds always take some bites out of the tallest-growing plants in my garden -- especially peas and winter squashes, and sometimes they nibble on other vegetables, too. Actually, I think these birds helped me out with my squashes this year: they nipped off the growing ends of my most vigorous squash plants when they reached the top of the trellis, which made the plants send out a bunch of new growth points, and these plants ended up making way more flowers and fruit than I was expecting. Thanks, young grosbeaks!

Finally, here's a picture of a baby Eastern Phoebe in its nest in our shed on July 13 (there are some more babies hiding down in the nest, too); this was our phoebe pair's third nesting attempt this year, and the only successful one, after the first two attempts were parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds:

I'll close this post with some video clips from the trail camera in our woods, taken on July 5-18, and featuring a Blue Jay eating Black Raspberries that were growing next to the trail, a raccoon and three babies, a Virginia Opossum, an adult Ruffed Grouse with excellent camouflage (and I think some babies rustling around in the undergrowth), a Wild Turkey, and a Gray Squirrel also munching on Black Raspberries -- a fitting end to this berry-full post:

 

It's nice to look back at the height of summer as the days are now getting shorter and colder. And I still have more summer sights to share. More in a future post!

Spring and Early Summer Highlights: Part II

Here's a continuation of the previous post, with more highlights from April, May, and June of this year. And it turns out I still have too many things to share, so this will actually have to be three posts, not two!

More Birds

Spring was very slow to advance this year, with freezing temperatures and occasional snow all the way through mid-May. (Our last snow was on May 12.) The migrating birds still showed up in early May as usual, though, which led to some strange sights, like this male Rose-breasted Grosbeak amid falling snow:

A flowering quince shrub in our yard bloomed fairly early in May despite the cold weather, and its blossoms were a big draw for some nectar-seeking birds. Here's a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird enjoying these blossoms on May 17:

Bare branches on another nearby shrub made great perches for little hummingbird feet in between trips to the flowers -- I love how sassy she looks in this photo:

A male hummingbird was hanging around, too, and actively courting the female. I didn't get any pictures of his fancy dives, but he was also nice enough to perch for a couple of photos in between trips to the flowering quince:

In this next picture, I love how the light bouncing off of his feathers has turned the underside of his beak red:

Baltimore Orioles were also frequent visitors to the quince blossoms; here's a brilliant male from May 16:
 

The number of bird species we've seen or heard on our property has continued to climb. Birds #107 and 108 (I still can't believe we're in the 100s!) were the two cuckoo species: Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Black-billed Cuckoo. In previous years, I've suspected that I was hearing cuckoos calling occasionally, and this year in early June I finally learned and confirmed these two species' calls. Confirmation of these species by ear was about as much as I thought I could hope for, but then a day or two afterward, both species each flew out into clear view and showed themselves. I didn't have my camera handy for the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (a bird I'd only seen once before, way back in 2011 in Connecticut), but here's a distant and partially-obstructed picture of the Black-billed Cuckoo, a totally new bird for me:

I managed to wander outside and look/listen for migrants nearly every day in May this year (a definite benefit of working from home). Ruby-crowned Kinglets were common and surprisingly loud visitors. Here's one of these cute little birds on May 1:

Black-and-white Warblers are so fancy, and I saw them fairly frequently this spring (and at least one pair has stuck around over the summer and is probably breeding somewhere out there). This male was foraging on a fallen tree in the woods on May 2:

And here's a male on May 16 showing off his gravity-defying tree-climbing skills:

These birds are gorgeous, but I think they look really strange when viewed head-on:

A flock of male Yellow-rumped Warblers lit up the still leafless woods on May 10:

A male Cape May Warbler foraged in a pine tree next to our driveway on May 17:

And on May 15 I felt extremely lucky to come across a male Black-throated Blue Warbler foraging right at ground level in the woods, and near the path. I suspect this is the closest I will ever get to one of these handsome birds, and is that not the most perfect color of slaty-blue on his head and back?
 

That's enough for now, but we're still not done catching up with spring and early summer! Stay tuned for Part III!

Basically All of Spring: Part 1

Since I last posted (in mid-March), I've been thoroughly enjoying spring in all its various stages. I love early spring, with its barest hints of growth; this picture of our house on a misty mid-April afternoon might seem bleak, but there's the faint green of new grass in the meadow, and the faint red of flowers on the maple trees:

And I love later spring, when everything's bright and new and so colorful; here's a view from our meadow just a month after the previous picture, on May 16:

The time frame for this current post almost exactly matches my two-part spring summary post from 2018 (which, while not planned, is convenient for me, because in the future I'll be able to look back and directly compare these two years). We actually got to spend more time at our house this year compared to last year (no lengthy traveling, and no house damage forcing us to stay in a hotel), so we were around to see more things. Even so, spring has felt like a whirlwind, with so much change and growth and motion, and not nearly enough time to take it all in. But I do what I can! And I've seen some really wonderful things this spring. (With so many sightings, this will need to be two posts. Here's part 1!)

Mammals

All the usual mammals have been around this spring: White-tailed Deer (including a fawn as of yesterday, June 3), Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, Red and Gray Squirrels, and Eastern Chipmunks. A Groundhog has shown up to forage in our yard several times, and while we're fairly certain she's a mother, we haven't seen any babies yet. Here's a chipmunk posing near the edge of our woods on May 1:

This spring has also brought a couple of amazing mammal sightings. For a few chilly days (and nights) at the end of April, a tiny Tricolored Bat (which used to be called an Eastern Pipistrelle) roosted near the ceiling of our front porch. This bat was only a couple of inches long, and we worried about it a bit as it stayed huddled in the same rather open spot for so long; but as soon as the weather warmed up again, it headed off. I feel very lucky to have gotten to see this little creature, and we were happy to share our porch with it:

Also incredibly lucky: On the evening of May 25, I saw a Gray Fox in our meadow. We were both out walking through the meadow, we spotted each other, stared at each other for several seconds (I had binoculars but hadn't brought my camera, sigh), and then the fox turned and bounded off. I knew Gray Foxes were around because they showed up on our trail camera a couple of times last year, but I'd never seen a Gray Fox in person before. It was beautiful, and somehow sleek and bushy at the same time. What an amazing creature!

Birds

Spring is a great time for birds, of course, with so many species leaving, arriving, passing through, and getting started with breeding. On March 23, I watched a flock of Snow Geese fly over the house, headed north:

A handsome male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker spent several days in April drilling and tending wells in our Shagbark Hickory tree:

A male Wild Turkey displayed in our meadow a few times, mostly for females who seemed uninterested (this picture is from April 11):

Turkeys are such strange-looking birds. Here's a flamboyant male who passed through the meadow on May 1:

Song Sparrows are among the cast of regulars in our yard during the spring -- I can almost always hear and/or see a Song Sparrow somewhere around the house or meadow if I try. But that doesn't mean I won't take the opportunity to make a picture of one of these handsome birds if they let me; I love Song Sparrows, and I'm very happy to have them around:

The male Chipping Sparrow with the white forehead arrived back in our yard this spring; this was the third year in a row we've seen him here, and it's nice to be able to greet a familiar individual bird:

Sadly, this is the last year we'll get to see this fancy fellow. At some point in May, he stopped showing up in the yard, and a few days later I found his body by the side of the road. I'm guessing he was hit by a car. Finding a dead animal is always sad, but this feels especially so because I could recognize the individual. I suppose these things happen, and I don't like it.

May brought all sorts of exciting avian arrivals. I watched this male Hooded Warbler singing from exposed perches in our woods on May 16:

The apple tree next to our house had lots of blossoms this year, and it drew in quite a few birds (who looked especially pretty surrounded by all those pink flowers). Here's a Blue-winged Warbler on May 17:

And a Tennessee Warbler on the same day:

I saw Tennessee Warblers in this tree several times this May, apparently because of some nice buggy meals hiding inside the blossoms. Here are some more pictures of the same individual from the previous picture, showing off some impressive foraging skills -- watch out, bugs:

Baltimore Orioles were also frequent visitors to this tree, although I kept missing them with my camera. Even at one of the more distant trees, though, a male Baltimore Oriole surrounded by apple blossoms made quite a sight:

See the next post (part 2) for the rest of this spring's sightings!