January-March, 2024

Wow, where does the time go? Somehow it's August already, and I still haven't posted any of the pictures of nature from around my property that have been gathering on my computer since January. So let's start to fix that! In this post, I'll share some highlights from the beginning of the year up through March. Get ready to time-warp back to winter!

This was another relatively mild winter, and there were some spans of time without any snow on the ground. These White-tailed Deer looked very handsome in the brown meadow at dusk on January 3:

Snow arrived a few days later, though, and I loved watching this little Carolina Wren as it searched for bugs in the many cracks and crevices on the snowy deck on January 7:

On January 8, I peeked through an open window while a flock of American Goldfinches fed on goldenrod seeds near the house:

On a walk around the property on February 4, I was charmed by this little frost-covered White Pine tree in the meadow:

And this Black-capped Chickadee was investigating the many holes in the old apple tree next to the driveway:

On February 18, these fertile fronds of Sensitive Fern made stark shapes against the snow-covered pond in the woods:

This Red Squirrel chattered at me from its tree as I passed by:

And these two male House Finches looked so lovely perched on the colorful twigs of this peach tree:

This winter, at least one Dark-eyed Junco became a regular visitor to the tube feeder that I kept stocked with nyjer seed; I'd only ever seen juncos eating seeds on the ground and on the platform feeder before this, but I guess this individual junco was up for trying something new!

 

The junco seemed quite comfortable with this feeding situation, even with the goldfinches jostling and chasing each other nearby:

This collection of lichen and moss on March 3 struck me as especially pretty, with such interesting shapes and colors:

Flowers emerged this year even earlier than they did last year, which was previously by far the earliest blooming I'd seen here. The snowdrops opened all the way back on February 10 this year, compared to last year's February 16; in all the previous years since I moved here, the snowdrops didn't start blooming until sometime in March. Here's a picture of one of the many honeybees that were visiting the snowdrops on sunny March 4:

On the afternoon of March 18, I noticed something small rustling in the front yard, and I got closer to find a shrew munching away at some meal in the middle of the grass. I wasn't able to figure out what the shrew was eating, and I'm not even sure which species of shrew this is, but it was very cool to get to see this creature so close up while it was just doing its thing:

Pine Siskins made a good showing at the feeders this year, especially starting in March; here are a few siskins along with House Finches, a goldfinch, and a junco on March 20:

I guess those Pine Siskins didn't want to share that corner of the feeder:

Black Bears have started showing up in the yard with greater frequency this year, including pulling down the feeders a few times.... (Notice the teeth marks in the nyjer seed feeder in the earlier pictures.) I haven't seen any bears in person yet this year, but these big tracks on March 21 made it clear that they were there, as if the damage to the feeders wasn't a big enough clue! (I bring the feeders inside at night now.)

A pair of Eastern Bluebirds chose to raise a family in the yard again this year (yay!), and here they are getting acquainted with the nest boxes on March 31:

Finally, also on March 31, this Pine Siskin stayed at the feeder while I walked nearby, so I was able to see it unusually close up; these are such fun and feisty little birds:

That's it for now! It's nice to get past the winter pictures and into spring, at least. :)

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. :)

The Rest of 2022, Part III: More Birds

We're continuing an account of sightings on our property in 2022. In addition to the birds who took up residence and raised families here this year -- which I wrote about in a previous post -- we had several other birds visiting our property. Here's a sampling!

This bright male Yellow-rumped Warbler stopped by the small pond in our woods on April 30, presumably on his way to northern breeding areas:

I enjoyed watching these American Goldfinches munching on Daisy Fleabane flowers near the house on July 7:

On August 18, an especially unusual bird showed up in the yard. I'd never seen a Blue-winged Warbler x Golden-winged Warbler hybrid before, but this bird's combination of yellow cap, black eyeline, pale throat and breast, and yellow wingbars were all the right marks; this particular hybrid is apparently common enough to have its own name -- Brewster's Warbler -- although it's not a distinct species. Here are a couple of very poor (but identifiable) pictures of this fancy bird:

 

Also on August 18, some young Rose-breasted Grosbeaks perched on plant stakes on the deck:

Although this next picture is very blurry, I'm sharing it because I love seeing the fancy marks on these birds' wings, including surprising rosy patches:

This Chestnut-sided Warbler looked adorable under a Purple-flowering Raspberry leaf on September 3:

A bunch of young and/or female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visited the potted zinnias on our deck in late August and early September. Here's one of these handsome birds perching on a stake on September 4:

I love that these flowers are big enough for the hummingbirds to put a little of their weight on the petals:

Here's another hummingbird practically perching on the petals as it drank on September 7:

 This Black-throated Green Warbler stopped on our deck on September 11:

And I love seeing Gray Catbirds (perhaps one of our residents or else another bird passing through) with Pokeweed berries; this picture is also from September 11:

On September 18, I happened to be outside while a bunch of hawks were wheeling overhead, flying together in numbers and heading south. This one picture includes three Broad-winged Hawks and what I think is a Cooper's Hawk; there were at least a dozen more hawks in the air, and soon they all moved on:

Other bird highlights this year -- without pictures -- included two new bird species for the yard: #112 was a female Common Merganser who flew overhead on May 15; #113 was a Green Heron who perched in one of the trees next to the meadow on July 16. Also, thanks to help from the amazing Merlin app's Sound ID feature, I was able to learn that I frequently hear a Northern Waterthrush calling during the summer at the back edge of our woods, which means this species probably breeds somewhere near our property.

It's always exciting to see and learn new things! I have one more batch of sights to share from 2022 before this year is over. Up next: flowers and insects!