Here are the rest of my sightings from our house since mid-March, continued from the previous post!
More Birds
We've had a lot of nesting drama this spring. First, pair of Eastern Bluebirds developed a strong interest in one of our nest boxes. Here's a female bluebird visiting the box on March 15; I think she looks very pretty backlit by the morning sun:
The pair eventually went for it, and the female built a large (towering, really) nest with grass and lots of pine needles. Here's the finished nest on April 29:
The male was around, too, chasing off other birds and generally keeping an eye on things. Here he is on April 30:
On May 4, I found a single blue egg in the nest:
And then that was the end of the bluebirds' nesting attempt here! A week later, the nest still only had the one egg, and the adults seemed to have disappeared. Sometime after that, the egg was gone and the nest untidy. I'm not sure what happened or why the bluebirds left, but at least this all happened early in the season, and hopefully one or both of them will still have time to make another go at nesting this year.
The Eastern Phoebes seemed to consider putting a nest over our front door again this year (as they have for at least the past two years), but in a surprise twist, the female phoebe built her nest on some electrical conduit under our back deck instead. The first egg appeared in the nest on May 2, and all seemed well and normal until I peeked into the nest on May 9 and saw an unusually large and speckled egg tucked in among the pearly white phoebe eggs -- a Brown-headed Cowbird had found the nest:
Brown-headed Cowbirds are native birds that don't build any nests of their own, but rather lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species, usually to the detriment of their hosts' actual brood. My first reaction on seeing this egg was disappointment, because I love phoebes, and it's been such a joy to see them raise their babies in previous years. But there's really nothing to be done; besides the fact that it's illegal to mess with native birds' eggs (without proper permits), there are all sorts of other reasons why it's a bad idea to remove a cowbird egg (see this site for a bunch of interesting points). So with all that in mind, I decided to view this nest as a chance to watch weird nature at work. I'd never gotten to actually see a cowbird being raised by host parents, after all. And, in the end, everything has worked out rather well (so far), which I suspect is mainly because these two adult phoebes are master hunters and excellent providers for their young dependents. I see the two of them snatching up bugs in our yard and meadow almost constantly. Here's one of the parents in a bush near the nest on May 16:
The cowbird was the first to hatch, on May 20:
I worried for a while that the phoebe eggs wouldn't hatch at all, but on May 25 (with the cowbird baby already six days old), the first phoebe baby appeared (wow, look at that size difference):
By May 29, only two of the phoebe eggs had hatched, and those two nestlings were pretty well dwarfed by the hulking cowbird baby:
And when I checked the nest on May 31 (only 11 days after hatching!), the cowbird had departed, and the two phoebes had the nest to themselves:
When I checked again yesterday, the two phoebe babies were still growing and doing fine. It's true that two phoebes is significantly fewer than the five original eggs, and some of that loss may have been because of the cowbird, but two phoebes is still better than no phoebes (which was another possible outcome), so I call this a win. Overall, I'm super impressed with these phoebe parents, who raised a cowbird nestling to fledging while also incubating and feeding their own babies. They deserve an award.
After a long period of indecision, a pair of Tree Swallows also took up residence in our second nest box, and that nest is going strong, with the first egg appearing in the nest on May 24. I love having these beautiful birds here, making their bubbling sounds and swooping around our meadow. I also appreciate how relatively amiable this particular pair of Tree Swallows is; these birds sit politely at their box while I work in my garden not too far away, whereas I've met Tree Swallows in other places who dive-bombed me for walking by at a further distance. Here's our pair at their box, the female peeking out of the entrance hole, and the male in his typical perch on top of the box:
Other birds are starting to nest in our yard, too, but these attempts are in their earliest stages, so I'll hold off on reporting about them until I know more.
Finally, this spring has brought an exciting bird milestone: We reached 100 species on the list of birds we've seen/heard on our property! Bird #98 was a Double-crested Cormorant who flew overhead (a pretty strange bird for a yard more than 10 miles from the nearest lake). Bird #99 was a group of Common Nighthawks who hunted over our meadow and woods for several evenings at the end of May, making their weird honking calls the whole time (what an awesome sight):
Bird #100 was a Mourning Warbler -- also a totally new bird for me -- who popped into our yard briefly near the end of May. 100 species of birds... wow. And we won't stop there! This place continues to amaze me.
Amphibians
We got to see several amphibians this spring. On the night of April 8, we went in search of the very loud Spring Peepers we were hearing, and after some careful searching we successfully spotted a few of these tiny frogs calling at the small pond (more of a large puddle really) in our woods. And then when we returned to the house, of course, who should be waiting at our front door, out in the open and easy to see, but a Spring Peeper. Oh well! I love these little frogs, regardless of whether we go looking for them or they come to us:
The night of April 12 was warm and rainy, and we spent some time shepherding peepers and Spotted Salamanders across our road. Unfortunately, several of these creatures had died trying to cross, but we made sure that at least a few got to the other side safely. Spotted Salamanders are wonderful, and I love getting to see them out and about on these early spring amphibian nights:
On May 16, I was surprised to find a Red-backed Salamander in our basement; it had crawled inside the warm, humid stand where I was starting seedlings for the garden. I find these salamanders fairly frequently in our woods, but transporting this individual outside was a great opportunity to admire it up close. Sooo cute:
Plants
Here are a few wildflower sightings to round out this spring summary. On April 7, eager for any signs of growing things, I admired the tiny new leaves of Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) in our meadow; this is second-year growth from seeds we scattered in 2017:
By May 26, these plants had become glorious mounds of greenery, with spires of purple/blue flowers:
I expected the lupine blossoms to be beautiful from afar (and they are), but I didn't know that these flowers would also have intricate and subtle markings up close:
The diversity of spring wildflowers in our woods is somewhat limited, but they're out there. I was happy to catch this Early Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum giganteum) in bloom on May 4:
Likewise with this Starflower (Trientalis borealis) on May 24:
An Allegheny Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis) I planted last year produced beautiful ribbon-y blossoms this sping; here's a picture of these flowers from May 4:
And on May 29, the many hawthorn trees in our woods were covered with blossoms (many more than I saw on these trees last year):
And finally, although it's not a native plant, I can't stop admiring the blossoms on Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys), which is common in all the spots in our yard where I haven't mowed:
And that's most of spring! There's still a lot of growing (for plants and animals) ahead in the upcoming months, but the wild rush is mainly over. I'm excited to see what happens next!
Wow, is it really October 1? It's been three months since I last made a post! I didn't mean to go so long without updating, but things get busy.... And this summer had all sorts of new ways for my time to get away from me. There's my new vegetable garden, for one thing (I'm really happy with this garden's first season!), and on July 1 we brought home this wonderful creature, who sure does require a lot of our time:
Oooo I love this puppy! I already can't believe he was ever that small. He's a very sweet, very smart, very good fellow (most of the time), and he's gotten about three times bigger than he was when we first brought him home! Here he is posing nicely during our daily walk through the meadow on September 22:
Sweet boy. Although I'm outside and walking on our property every day, being tethered to an easily distractable puppy doesn't really allow for a lot of picture taking or careful nature viewing. (Maybe that'll change when he's older?) Even so, I've seen many interesting creatures around our house in the past three months, and since this is now our second summer at this property, I've enjoyed comparing this year's sightings to last year; in some ways, this summer has been very different!
I'm rather sad to say that last summer's invasion of tiny Spring Peepers in our yard (and on our porches, windows, etc.) seems to not be an annual event. In the past few months, I've heard scattered peepers testing out their voices from hidden spots in the yard, and I caught a glimpse of one adult in the woods, but I never saw a single young peeper. I would have expected the wet weather this summer to boost amphibian populations, if anything, but maybe something happened (or didn't happen) early in the spring that affected our local peepers' breeding attempts. Or maybe last year's invasion was a fluke?
Instead of Spring Peepers, though, Ref Efts (juvenile Red-spotted Newts) have been particularly common on our property this summer. I saw one (or more) of these brilliant orange amphibians nearly every day from roughly July through September. Here's a handsome individual in our woods on August 9:
And here's a teeny tiny eft among the flowers of (I think) Wild Basil (Clinopodium vulgare), a very common plant throughout the un-excavated part of our meadow:
Speaking of plants, many of the wildflowers that came with the property have continued to put on a fantastic show this year. September is when this property practically glows, with wild asters of various species blanketing every edge and border around the yard. Here's just a small section of the swaths that are now covered with our yard's most common aster, Crooked-Stemmed Aster (Symphyotrichum prenanthoides), on September 14:
And here's a view of the path I've maintained this year through the un-excavated part of the meadow, alight with goldenrod and aster blooms on September 22:
Since last summer, though, we've also added quite a few new plants to the property, making for some very different summer scenery. About 1/4 of our meadow was excavated last fall during a geothermal project, which left a bare stretch of soil and rocks (lots of rocks). In late November, with the ground already starting to freeze, we scattered several pounds of native grass and wildflower seeds (a mixture of 3 grasses and 18 wildflowers) onto the bare ground. In the spring and early summer, we started to see some plants sprouting from the seeds we spread, but we were fairly certain that this disturbed part of the meadow would be mostly bare -- or at least flower-less -- this year. So it was quite a thrill to see species after species appear and bloom over top of what was basically a big empty mud pit at the beginning of the year.
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) has done especially well, and these plants make up the bulk of this bright scene on September 15:
Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) has been a delightful discovery from among this mix of seeds, with tall sprays of bright yellow flowers, shown here on August 6:
And how interesting that this plant produces nectar in little wells along its stems -- I'm sure this ant is here for the Partridge Pea's sweet treat:
I found the flowers of this native grass, Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), especially charming (this picture is from September 6):
Overall, I've seen at least some plants of all 3 of the grass species we planted, and 9 of the 18 wildflower species. I'll be very curious to see how this part of the meadow changes and grows in the coming years! (And I'm geared up to battle invasive plants, as I'm sure they will try to take over this recently disturbed area.)
Up closer to the house, the Cardinal Flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) I planted in the yard last fall produced their amazing blooms (this picture is from July 17):
I had never thought of this showy native as a candidate for a perennial garden bed, but there it was at the native plant nursery when I visited last fall, and now it lives here with me. I saw hummingbirds visiting these flowers several times this summer, but I never did manage to have my camera with me at the right moment.... Maybe next year.
I also added Purple Coneflower to the yard, which proved to be very popular with the local butterflies, bees, and beetles. Here's a Tiger Swallowtail at the coneflowers on July 18:
And here's a bumblebee with a distinctive torn wing; we saw this individual at these flowers every day for at least a couple of weeks (pictured here on July 17):
The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds seemed very happy to also find big pots of flowers on our deck this summer, and we got the benefit of seeing these birds regularly and up close. On September 12, I was able to take some pictures of one of these wonderful little birds as it visited my zinnias:
What a sweet little bird, sometimes even perching on the petals as it arrived for a drink:
The nearby snapdragons were also tempting, but I include this picture here mostly to point out that perfect little paddle-shaped tail:
There have been a lot of birds around the property this summer. A family of Common Yellowthroats frequently showed up to forage in the various shrubs and brush right near the house. Here's one of these perky little birds on July 18:
And here's another angle, because I'm not used to having such a clear view of these birds:
On August 7, I met up with a family of Dark-eyed Juncos along our woods trail. The juvenile -- looking nothing like a junco except for that half-grown white-striped tail -- made agitated chirps from a nearby tree:
While its parents foraged for honeysuckle berries:
A family of Eastern Wood-Pewees (I saw up to three individuals at once) hung around our house for a while in August, and I was happy to get to see and hear these little flycatchers regularly; here's one of the pewees on August 16:
This Gray Catbird watched me cautiously from the edge of the meadow on September 6:
And this molting American Goldfinch looked especially fancy as it foraged on some goldenrod on September 12:
A few more assorted sights round out the summer. On July 14, I moved a rock next to the garden to find a mother wolf spider carrying her many tiny babies on her back:
An impressive Black and Yellow Argiope spider (Argiope aurantia) hung her egg case on our deck, pictured here on August 25 (although the spider disappeared a few days later):
Several Monarch caterpillars showed up this year, including this individual who was eating an immature seedpod on a Swamp Milkweed plant (Asclepias incarnata) on July 30:
I found this gorgeous, big Laurel Sphinx caterpillar (Sphinx kalmiae) munching on the leaves of a small ash sapling on August 1:
But when I saw the caterpillar again just two days later, it was covered with the cocoons of parasitic wasp larvae that had -- it turns out -- been eating the caterpillar from the inside this whole time; isn't nature crazy?
Finally, because there haven't been enough amphibians in this post, here's a little Red-backed Salamander, one of four that I found under three rocks along our woods trail on September 22; it's nice to know that this salamander's population here continues to thrive:
I continue to be impressed and amazed at the variety of wildlife right here at my home. And now the seasons are turning again, many of the summer birds are already on their way out (with others passing through), and increasingly chilly days mean I should be sure to enjoy all these flowers while they still last. Here comes fall!
