January-April, 2023

Oh look! Somehow it's been another half-a-year since I last posted sightings from around our property on this blog. :) I seem to be falling into a pattern of gathering pictures on my computer for months and then sharing these highlights in bursts -- but ah well, better late than never! It's time to start catching up with 2023!

The first few months of this year were especially busy, and I'm sure I missed a lot of the goings-on in our yard, meadow, and woods (sadly). But even so, I got to see many cool things, and I've had a lot of fun getting to know my brand new camera (thank you, family, for the Christmas gift!). My old, much-loved, 10+ year old DSLR camera simply wasn't working very well anymore, and it was time for an upgrade. So I've been playing around with this new toy, learning some new things, and so enjoying having a fully functional camera again.

In this post, I'll share some highlights from winter and early spring -- January through April -- and then I'll have much more to share from the rest of spring and early summer in later posts. Here we go!

On January 8, I wandered through our meadow and woods, admiring the sunny blue sky and snow-free ground. Most of this year's winter was quite mild; it's strange to see our meadow in January without snow:

In the woods, I was having too much fun taking pictures of the jungle of moss on this fallen log:

I spent some time figuring out how up-close I could get to another patch of moss with my new camera (much closer than my old camera could go!) -- I also love the tiny ice crystals in this next picture, showing that yes, it is really winter:

We did have some snow in January, although not a lot. Here's a crisp wintry view of the hills across the valley from our house on January 16:

This male Downy Woodpecker was in the apple tree outside our window during a light but driving snowfall on January 13, and I can't resist sharing this picture of this cute little bird with his heart-shaped cap:

On February 12, without snow on the ground in which to build their usual network of tunnels, this Meadow Vole was foraging around a wood pile, quite exposed. Be careful, little vole:

Nearby, I was surprised to see a spider out and about in the sunshine, climbing on a peach tree twig (I think this is some sort of Long-jawed Orbweaver, genus Tetragnatha):

There usually isn't anything blooming here in February, but with all the mild weather and lack of snow, our Snowdrops bloomed on February 16, a good three weeks earlier than I'd seen these flowers bloom before, in the six years we've lived in this house.

And although they're not actually flowers, I also loved seeing the little flower-like bracts on the American Witch Hazel shrub in our front yard; the bracts are left over from last year's blossoms, and they'll host the expanding seed pods in the coming months. Here's a picture of these bracts from February 12:

On March 5, I spent some time admiring some of the birds hanging out in our yard. I love how the underside of this Mourning Dove's tail seems to glow:

A male Red-bellied Woodpecker and Pileated Woodpecker sat in the same tree across the meadow from our house for several minutes, preening and apparently keeping watch over the territory (this tree was sooo far away from me -- yay, camera!):

A male House Finch looked handsome in the branches of a fir tree in our yard:

And here's another (or the same?) male Downy Woodpecker in the apple tree again, this time without a window pane between us:

On March 12, a few inches of puffy wet snow made a pretty frame for this American Goldfinch:

And some mammal's tracks led the way through the pristine snow into our woods trail:

Speaking of mammals in the woods, here's a selection of mammal sightings from our trail camera in February and March; the camera was watching a spot just a little further down the path in the picture above. This video includes six brief clips, featuring a Gray Fox carrying an unknown object (something hard? a bone?), our very first Fisher recorded on our property, a Raccoon, an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, a White-tailed Deer, and a Red Fox with a mouthful of voles:

 

It's so amazing to be able to see these creatures as they passed through our woods!

On March 26, our American Hazelnut shrubs were blossoming, with tiny female flowers:

And dangling male flowers:

That evening, as it was starting to get dark, this fancy male Dark-eyed Junco spent some time displaying right at eye-level in the blooming Silver Maple in front of our house:

What a puffy, handsome fellow!

 

A burst of warm weather in April meant that a lot of the early spring flowers bloomed and faded quickly, and I missed many of them this year. Fortunately, I was at least able to grab a view of these Bloodroot flowers at their very brief peak, since they grow in our front yard (next to emerging Virginia Bluebell buds):

And I was very happy to get to see our one Red Trillium blossoming in the woods on April 19:

April was also the time when our neighborhood birds started building nests and laying eggs. This is the second year in a row when the Eastern Phoebes declined to build a nest in their traditional (and as far as I've seen, always successful) spot over our front door, so I suppose that time has finished. Instead, they nested in our old shed again, where they were parasitized by Brown Cowbirds. The phoebe's April nesting attempt failed -- they actually removed the cowbird egg, but then they didn't continue on with that nest.

In happier April bird-nesting news, this was the first year since we put up bluebird boxes in 2018 that we've actually had an Eastern Bluebird family come and stay! (A pair of bluebirds made a brief attempt in 2019, but they disappeared after they laid one egg.) It's been so wonderful to have bluebirds as a common fixture in our yard this year -- usually they're only infrequent passers-through here. I don't have any pictures of the bluebird family from April, but don't worry, I'll have plenty of pictures of them in the next posts.

On April 19, I was surprised to see a Black-capped Chickadee checking out the nest box containing the fully-constructed bluebird nest (the first egg appeared the very next day):

The chickadee even went inside the box to take a look around, but it left again quickly:

Sorry, chickadee, this spot is taken.

And that's it for 2023 up through April! I've got lots more to share from spring and summer so far this year, so more will be coming later. :)

March and April, 2021

Here we are, already on the first day of summer as I write this! Spring is always a busy time, and this year's spring was indeed busy, but it was also wonderful. Unlike last year's chaotic spring (oh, 2020), this year's past few months have been relatively smooth, at least around here. We've had a fairly even transition from snowy frozen winter into warmer weather and rain and sun. And I've been able to wander outside and keep up with a lot of the plants and animals in our yard, meadow, and woods as their populations have grown and shifted. I played a game where I tried to know the name of every plant (native and non-native alike) as it flowered on our property this spring, and I made it all the way to the end of May before I had to admit defeat! (Maybe next year I'll make it even further.)

I have a bunch of sights to share from the past few months. This post will cover only the months of March and April (May and June will come later). It's time to go back to snowy days!

We must have had a big boom in our population of Meadow Voles over the winter, because the melting snow in March revealed lots of these rodents' nests in the meadow (and later, extensive tunnels across the ground, damaged plants, etc.). Here's one of the Meadow Vole nests and its perfect melted circle in the snow on March 11:

Big flocks of migrating Snow Geese and Canada Geese crossed the sky -- heading North -- fairly frequently in March. This flock of Snow Geese passed overhead on March 9:

Also on March 9, I saw this Red-tailed Hawk with what looked like a very full crop (I guess somebody found a big meal):
 

On March 21, I was surprised to see a Pileated Woodpecker clinging to our little suet feeder! I'd never seen one of these big birds at our feeders before, and I guess this setup doesn't look super comfortable:

April 11 was a big amphibian night (it was rainy and warm), and we saw Spotted Salamanders and Red-backed Salamanders galore (but no good pictures of those awesome amphibians), plus a couple of big Pickerel Frogs that I didn't recognize at first because I'd never seen them during breeding season before:

Lots of Spring Peepers were also out and about on the night of April 11, including this little peeper who perched on our doormat:

And this peeper who posed nicely on the blue background of our front door:

This was a great spring for flowers! Here are several pristine Bloodroot flowers in our front yard on April 14:

And female Spicebush flowers on the same day and only a few feet away:

Here's American Golden Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium americanum), also on April 14, and a totally new plant for me. These flowers are no more than tiny rings of orange dots, and I only thought to look closely at these plants in the pond in our woods after I read about these flowers in another blog (thanks, Saratoga Woods and Waterways!):

I found this next flower in the protected public land across the street from our house (which I've learned is especially rich in spring wildflowers!), rather than on our property. But I was so thrilled to see these Sharp-lobed Hepatica flowers, which I haven't seen up close in many years! Here's one of these beautiful purple flowers on April 19:

This patch of the woods had lots of white hepatica flowers, too, and I thought these were just as beautiful as the purple ones:

Back in our woods, I was super excited to find our first Red Trillium blossoms (after noticing what I thought looked like trillium leaves in previous years), right next to the path. This picture is from a rainy April 29:

To round out a few more April sightings, here's a very handsome White-throated Sparrow on April 19:

And here's a quite early Garter Snake (also on April 19) who sat perfectly still on the forest floor while I pulled up an invasive honeysuckle bush nearby (notice the large red Velvet Mite on the right as well):

A Common Raven stopped by several times to pull chunks off of a road-killed Raccoon across the street from our house, so we had front row seats for its shopping trips (perhaps it was feeding a family nearby?). Here's the raven visiting on April 22 (yes, that's snow):

Throughout March and April, our trail camera let us see some goings-on in the woods. Here's a compilation of a few video highlights from those months:

1. A Raccoon feeling for critters in the small pond in our woods.
2. Two Virginia Opossums walking together.... I've never seen two opossums at the same time before, so I wonder whether there might have been some thoughts of mating.
3. For a few days in April, I happened to set up the trail camera in what turned out to be a White-tailed Deer's bedroom, and I ended up with many, many videos of deer sitting around and chewing. Here's one of those videos.
4. Also from the deer-bedroom set, there's this video of the sleepy deer standing up, walking next to the camera, and audibly yawning. I think it's really cool to get to hear a deer's yawn.
5. At the fallen-log spot that was so productive last summer, a Long-tailed Weasel.
6. A beautiful Gray Fox.
   

 

And that's March and April! May and June are up next!

Spring and Early Summer Highlights: Part I

I'm starting to figure out that April, May, and June are some of the busiest months of the year around here! Between work (especially in April and early May), gardening (yay!), and other time-sensitive outdoors tasks (the Garlic Mustard battle continues...), this is the third year in a row when I've let nature sightings accumulate on my computer for most of these months, which means I end up making a big summarizing blog post after spring has finished. So here we go!

After three years living on this property, I'm getting a pretty good sense of what's normal around here in terms of wildlife. So instead of providing a comprehensive summary this year, I'll share some highlights of especially exciting or new-to-me sightings in our yard, meadow, and woods. There have been a lot of wonderful surprises in the past few months! (Even with just the highlights, this is going to have to be two posts!)

Mammals

The trail camera has continued to provide an amazing glimpse into the goings-on in our woods, including views of several mammals that we almost never (or actually never!) get to see otherwise. One of the coolest results from the trail camera this spring was the first confirmation that we do indeed have Bobcats in our woods! It's so exciting to see a wild feline up close (even remotely) as it traveled our trails, and the wild canines (Coyote and Gray Fox) that also made close-up appearances on the trail camera are super amazing, too. Sightings of a Virginia Opossum and a troupe of Raccoons were nice bonuses. :) Here are some cool mammal video clips, all from April and May:



Birds

Several birds have made their homes on our property this year, and there's been plenty of nesting drama. Our Eastern Phoebe pair is going for two broods again (same as last year), and they're doing a fantastic job so far. After starting a mossy/muddy foundation for a nest above our front door in April, the female Phoebe changed her mind and built a nest in the rafters of an old shed on our property instead. Here she is bringing nesting material to her construction site on April 24:
 

This shed is pretty run-down, and it's not really weather-proof, but I suppose it keeps enough of the rain away to protect a nest. We were worried about birds hitting the windows in this shed, so we hung up some branches and other random items to block the glass, and that seems to have worked. It was cool to see the phoebes swooping through this doorway, making themselves at home -- I'm glad someone's making good use of this old building!
 

The first Phoebe egg appeared on May 3, and by June 8 the five (or so) babies were looking alert and just about ready to leave the nest:
 

While the first brood was still in the shed, the female phoebe went ahead and built her second nest over our front door. Feeding and incubating two broods simultaneously must be a lot of work, and these two birds sure seem to make a great team! Here's one of the parents (probably the male) feeding two still-needy youngsters from their first brood on June 27 on top of a trellis in my garden:
 

And here are the new arrivals in the second nest on July 3 (that third egg hatched sometime after I took this picture):
 

Yay, phoebes!

A pair of Black-capped Chickadees claimed one of our nest boxes (which are theoretically for bluebirds) and built a lovely nest of moss, grass, and fur by the end of April. Here's one of the prospective chickadee parents peering out of the box on April 24:
 

But then in early May, a male House Wren arrived and pulled apart the chickadees' nest, emptying out the box for his own use. Sigh, poor chickadees. I saw chickadees working on nests in a couple of spots in tree limbs around the property later on, but I don't know if any of those other spots have been successful either. Being a cavity-nester seems like a really rough time! Here's a chickadee at one possible nest hole in the woods on May 10:
 

I wasn't especially happy about the male House Wren's arrival, even apart from his destruction of the chickadees' nest. House Wrens are native birds, and they're really cute and gregarious (plus, they're a species that I hadn't seen breeding on our property yet)... but I've also read that House Wrens are very aggressive, and they sometimes attack other birds' nests in their territory, even when they already have a nesting spot of their own. I was worried that the House Wren would hurt the Tree Swallows who were starting to nest in the other box right nearby. Here's the male House Wren depositing tiny sticks into the now-empty nest box on May 17 -- I love how these birds always approached the nest hole from above, swinging down over the rim of the roof:
 

For several days, I tried to deter the male House Wren -- or at least keep him busy -- by removing the twigs he kept bringing to the box. But he was very persistent, and soon a female House Wren joined him, and then an egg appeared in the box, and that was it, the box was definitely theirs. They ended up with eight little speckled eggs in their nest:
 

On June 19, those little eggs started producing tiny proto-birds:
 

And here's the whole fuzzy family at four days old, on June 22:
 

The adult House Wrens always kept a very close (and noisy) watch whenever I checked their nest box:
 

Close enough for a portrait, even:
 

Meanwhile, the Tree Swallow pair built their lovely feather-lined nest and raised their babies in the other box. Here's the male keeping watch while the female brings nesting material to the box on May 17:
 

I love having Tree Swallows as a consistent presence in the yard while they're nesting. Also on May 17, I was able to grab some pictures of these beautiful birds while they hunted for flying insects (and kept an eye on me) against blue skies over the meadow:
 

Everything seems to have turned out OK, and the House Wrens and Tree Swallows have all fledged successfully. I'm glad these two bird families were able to be amicable neighbors, and I'm happy that our nest boxes helped to add a dozen or so insect-eating birds into the world this spring. The Tree Swallows have now departed, but the male House Wren is still hanging around and singing, even though his nest is empty.... I wonder if there's still time for a second brood this year. (Going into next year, I'll need to decide whether I'm going to try to deter House Wrens from using our nest boxes again. There are a few other things I can try, so we'll see how it goes.)

This spring's nesting season has brought a couple of other complete surprises as well. Field Sparrows usually pass through our property every spring, but this year a pair of these little birds stuck around and raised a nest of babies somewhere under the vegetation in the meadow. I never saw the nest, but I saw the adults carrying food and acting agitated when I was nearby. I've read that Field Sparrows usually avoid nesting in areas near human habitation, so I feel super lucky that these two birds chose our little meadow for their family. Here's one of the adult Field Sparrows on May 16:
 

And, wonderfully, a pair of Great-crested Flycatchers decided to build a nest in a cavity in the old apple tree next to our driveway. Again, these are birds who have passed through our yard only occasionally in past years -- usually at treetop level -- so it was amazing to see them around nearly constantly, hunting in my garden, and so on. Here's the female flycatcher with a beakful of nesting material, ready to deposit it into the cavity on June 17:
 

And here's her mate keeping watch:
 

These seem to be tough birds. On June 27, I saw one of the flycatchers sitting on a power line in the rain, and a Mourning Dove landed practically on top of the flycatcher. There was a tussle, and the flycatcher came away with one of the dove's feathers:
 

Tough as they are, though, the flycatchers' nesting attempt didn't work. On July 1, I watched as a chipmunk emerged from the flycatchers' cavity and dropped an egg to the ground. Ugh. Nesting in cavities really seems to be a rough situation, and incredibly risky. Honestly, though, I'm surprised the flycatchers made it so far into their nesting attempt in the first place, since I see chipmunks and squirrels in that tree so frequently. The Great-crested Flycatchers left our yard after that. I hope they're able to find a new and better nesting cavity somewhere else. :/

There's more to share, but that's enough for one post! More coming soon.