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 IV: Insects and Plants

Whew, I guess I did have a lot to share from 2022, since this is the fourth post wrapping up this year's sightings from our property. But really, this is what I get for letting things pile up since March. In any case, here are some final assorted highlights from 2022, featuring insects (and spiders) and plants!

The first significant wave of spring flowers always makes me very happy, and our show started in late April this year. I was especially happy to see flowers that I've planted in front of our house in recent years (mostly thanks to our local native plant nurseries!). A small bee was enjoying these Bloodroot flowers on April 24 as much as I was:

Nearby, the Wild Ginger I planted last year was opening its first flowers at ground level:

And I was super excited to see the first flower buds on a Virginia Bluebells plant that had been in the ground here for a couple of years and that I was starting to think might never bloom:

Here are the Virginia Bluebells on May 7, open and accepting pollinators:

On May 12, I finally identified the spider species that builds intricate double-layered webs throughout our meadow every year as a Bowl and Doily Spider (Frontinella pyramitela); what a cool creature:

And here's the meadow lit-up with Bowl and Doily Spider webs on May 16:

I've been so happy to see the meadow's progress over the past few years, since we needed to have some excavation done in late 2017 and scattered a mix of native seeds over the disturbed portion. This year, the meadow settled into basically three waves of dominant flowering plants (with other species joining the show to a lesser extent). Beautiful Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) took the first wave, and here's the lupine-filled meadow on May 30:

By late July, Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) was the star, casting a pale purple wash over the meadow (the gradually increasing presence of Common Milkweed also helped); here's the same portion of the meadow on July 28:

September is the time of goldenrods and asters here, and goldenrod in particular turned the meadow overall golden this year; this is a view from a different point in the meadow on September 4, but this view was similar in other parts of the meadow as well:

I will be very curious to see how the meadow progresses in future years. I mostly expect the goldenrod to take over from other plants, but who knows, perhaps the lupine and bergamot will be able to hold their own and continue to add their waves of color in future years as well. We'll see!

Speaking of goldenrods and asters, here's a scene from the edge of our property on September 14. Our place really is at its most decadent in September, with blankets of flowers covering every unmown surface -- what an absolute treat, and a total surprise, since those plants were all there waiting for someone to stop mowing them so they could burst into bloom:

A few other new flower combinations in the front beds made me especially happy this year. Here's amazing Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) with Whorled Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum) and Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana) peeking in on the side, all blooming profusely on July 27:

And here's Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) together with Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum) on September 10:

I so love adding plant diversity to our yard, and the pollinators seem to like it, too. I plan to keep expanding and diversifying in future years!

Jumping over to insects, here's a dragonfly in the yard on June 11, an aptly named Dot-tailed Whiteface:

We found this Maple Spanworm caterpillar (Ennomos magnaria) pretending to be a stick on the mailbox on June 16:

Is that an incredible stick mimic or what? It looked especially at home when I put it on a Silver Maple twig (one of its many food plants):

I planted some Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) in the front flower bed last year, and this year a whole bunch of American Lady caterpillars (Vanessa virginiensis) showed up to munch on the leaves and developing buds. These caterpillars are cool and the butterflies are pretty, but they also ate a lot of the plant, so if they show up again next year I'll likely relocate most of them:

Purple-flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus) is a native plant that already had a strong foothold in a semi-shaded area near our house when we moved in, and it's continued to expand in this area in recent years; these pictures are from June 23:

I love this plant's crinkled purple flowers:

I still haven't been able to identify the species of fritillary butterflies we have in our yard every year, but this individual was looking especially pretty on July 17 on Purple Coneflower:

A few Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars grew nice and big on our Spicebush plants this year; here's a big caterpillar with its fancy eyespots sheltering in a leaf on July 28:

I also saw a bunch of Black Swallowtail caterpillars this year, both on wild Queen Anne's Lace plants and on my fennel and dill plants in the garden. Here's a big fennel-munching individual on August 17:

And here are a couple of caterpillars on Queen Anne's Lace on August 21:

It's hard for me to pass up an opportunity to take pictures of Hummingbird Clearwing moths, even though these fancy moths are quite common on our property in the summer. They're just so cool. This moth was enjoying a patch of Garden Phlox flowers on August 7:

And this individual was feasting from New York Ironweed (another relatively recent addition in our front flower beds) on September 3:

I love the Ironweed's super curly bits in this next picture:

These Gray Dogwood berries were looking especially pretty on their pink stems on August 26:

Also on August 26, I found this cute baby White Pine in the meadow, surrounded by seedheads of what I'm pretty sure is Wild Basil (Satureja vulgaris):

Here's a backlit view of Wild Basil seedheads on October 14 -- these plants are common throughout the meadow:

In the woods, a few Wild Basil plants were still flowering:

Our White Ash trees are gradually being eaten by Emerald Ash Borer, but this year nearly all of the trees on our property had a big crop of seeds; here's a picture of the seeds on otherwise bare branches on October 14:

Also on October 14, I admired the gorgeous colors of American Hazelnut leaves, with next year's catkins and buds also in view:

In the woods, fallen White Pine needles had turned the surface of the little pond golden:

This falling needle had enough force to punch through a yellowing beech leaf:

Meanwhile, the Virginia Creeper vines that cover the trees on the edge of our woods had dropped their leaves but were still holding on to brilliant pink stems, making the tree trunks look like they'd sprouted some weird pink growth:

And for one last burst of color in this post, here's a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle that was hiding in our front yard on October 29, until I exposed its sandy hiding place under a rock:

And those are some highlights from 2022! Happy new year! Perhaps I'll manage to post more frequently in 2023. :)