The orioles have been frequent visitors to my sugar water feeders, but they also spend time in the apple trees eating insects and nectar from the blossoms.
Oriole in Apple Blossoms
Picture of the Day for May 19, 2023
Patches of pink now line some of the road ditches and woodlands as the wild geraniums are in full bloom. Native to eastern North America, wild geranium is also known by these common names including wood geranium, alum root, alum bloom, cranesbill, spotted cranesbill, wild cranesbill, and spotted geranium.
Wild Geranium Blossoms
Picture of the Day for May 18, 2023
While the House Wren may be one of the tiny birds, it is rather mighty, territorial and aggressive as they will puncture eggs in nearby nests or even removing the eggs or young chicks. They will harass and peck larger birds and they sure holler at me when I get near one of their nests.
Mighty Little Wren
Picture of the Day for May 17, 2023
With the return of the Tree Swallows and the Gray Catbirds, most the birds have returned for another season. The Catbird may be making its nest near my porch and its calls do resemble a cat’s mew sound, but their songs may lasts ten minutes which includes imitations of birds and other things in addition to whistles and squeaks. Catbirds usually don’t repeat the phrases unlike the Brown Thrashers that normally repeat twice or the mockingbirds repeating three or more times.
Gray Catbird
Picture of the Day for May 16, 2023
I noticed the first Jack-in-the-Pulpit blooming this spring, but with all the new plants sprouting up, the plant might have been a Jill-in-the-Pulpit last year instead as plant has both male or female parts and they change gender from year to year depending the success of the previous year.
Little Jack-in-the-Pulpits
Picture of the Day for May 15, 2023
When I was mowing my lawn this afternoon, I noticed the dandelions near my south house wall have already gone to seed, and although I rather see the yellow stage, at least this white isn’t as bad as snowflakes blowing around.
Gone to Seed
Picture of the Day for May 14, 2023
Last year on Mother’s Day, I could not find three dandelions that were open that I needed for my tradition of giving them to my mom on the special day. This year, even with a late spring but with Mother’s Day almost a week later, it was much easier to find three dandelions as it was hard not to step on them.
Plenty of Yellow
Picture of the Day for May 13, 2023
The poor little Spring Beauties haven’t open much as they keep closing up on the cloudy and rainy days. Their small size doesn’t flash a lot of color and even less when they are not fully open. Next week it is supposed to be sunny so maybe if they haven’t gone to seed yet, they can enjoy some sunshine.
Spring Beauties Needing Sun
Picture of the Day for May 12, 2023
Yesterday a couple of male Indigo Buntings arrived at my bird feeders. There might have been some females too, but the female’s brown color does not pop out like the male’s blue even though the males do not have blue pigment. The blue we see instead comes from microscopic structures that refract and reflect blue light in their feathers.
Male Indigo Bunting
Picture of the Day for May 11, 2023
More white can be seen, but at least it isn’t snow, but blossoms from the wild plum trees giving additional sources of pollen and nectar for the bees.
Bee in Wild Plum Tree
