Great Blue Heron Came for Breakfast!





Great Blue Heron visits my yard!


Looking out my window on Monday morning I just happened spot a large blue/gray bird walking along my upper backyard. I had to look twice because his head was almost as high as my bird feeder that was set in the ground at approximately 3' high!  I've seen this Great Blue Heron once before during one of his visits, but I didn't happen to have my camera nearby. If you were wondering what this amazing bird was doing in my yard? You guessed it - He was looking to eat my pond fish for breakfast!!

Luckily, the first time I saw him in my yard last year doing exactly the same thing, I put a black netting over the pond to protect my poor unsuspecting fish! I solved the one problem of keeping the herons out, but created another one by keeping the frogs in or out depending upon where they were when I put the netting up! So a few adjustments had to be made after several frogs needed rescuing from the net! It took a little time, but we've all become used to it.





Great Blue Heron keeping an eye on our fish pond!



            This big guy is just amazing to see in a backyard setting - with a height of 39"-52" and a wingspan of 5', he looked so large and out of place!  When he noticed that I had spotted him, he flew up to a branch at the edge of the lawn and patiently watched as I took pictures of him.

  Notice his lower chest feathers which look a bit shaggy - I believe he is an adult since the juveniles are not supposed to have this yet.  His long neck has a pinkish hue to it with a black and white streak down the center of it. His face is mostly white with a black cap on his head. His long thin legs and dagger-like beak are very long and yellowish in color - perfect for fishing!

Although his diet is mainly of fish, they also eat amphibians, and occasionally small mammals and birds. Crustaceans are also on his menu!

Common Yellowthroat-Geothlypis trichas

(Picture from wikipedia)

  

On the same day I saw the Great Blue Heron, I also had this cute little guy show up at my pond! I have never seen a Conmmon Yellowthroat in my yard before, so I was very excited to have both birds show up on the same day!! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera this time to take a picture so this picture is from wikipedia. They are so beautiful I just had to show a picture! The female doesn't have the black mask, but the males look lide little bandits!

They are much smaller in size than the Great Blue Heron, measuring in at 4 1/2" - 6" ht.

They are in the wood warbler family and have a charming song.

They love to eat insects, which I could definitely use in my garden!



Blooming along my woodland path this week are my beautiful purple native woodland phlox. I also have a pale pink variety. They are wonderful creeping plants that bloom with their flowers raised above their leaves!

Bishop's Cap - Mitella diphylla

Saxifrage family (Saxifragaceae)

This small unassuming plant can easily be overlooked, even when it  flowers, However, if you take

 a moment to look closer, you will be delighted with the

 magical little white flowers with fringed edges!



Variegated Solomon's Seal

Gorgeous graceful plants that have beautiful emerald
 green leaves with white edged variegation. The waxy white bells dangle in pairs off of red petioles. I started with one plant I purchased from a local nursery at least 24 years ago. I now have quite a few plants that have colonized in several different areas along my path. They are always a delight to see! 



We have used large logs for seating along our woodland path.

Another huge branch from an oak tree fell onto our stonewall and damaged several

 of our smaller trees. It was so large we decided to leave this large section to use as a bench

 along our woodland path.

Remember to take a break during your day

and enjoy the nature that surrounds you!!

 See You Next Week!!

Tracey :-)

Wednesday Woodland Path Walk!

Mertensia virginica - Virginia Bluebells.

Virginia Bluebell is a showy, early spring

wildflower found through most of the

 eastern United States. They have dense

 clusters of pink flower buds that open

up to blue flowers!

Virginia Bluebells are so pretty!

 Like many of the woodland plants I am sharing with you today, they remind me of my spring hikes through the woods of New England where I grew up. When I started my path, my goal was to create an experience similiar to the hikes I would take. Since I tended to spend most of the time with my head looking down so I wouldn't trip, I discovered many of my favorite wildflowers! I loved nothing more than to turn a corner and be greeted with a tiny wildflower next to a rock or at the base of a tree!

That's how I tried to plant along my path, planting a little pocket of plants here and there next to rocks, trees and other little natural features I found in my little patch of woods!

 Uvularia sessilifolia - Sessileleaf Bellwort,

 Wild Oats

.Blooms Early- to mid-spring

I like to call these little plants Wild Oats, the color of their hanging bells are a light yellow reminding of the color of oats. I believe these were native to my woods and I just transplanted them around different areas.

Now they have grown into large patches, showing off their delicate little bells. One might miss them since they are so slender and their bells hang below their leaf, but as a patch of them they are very charming!

Wild Cherry Blossoms

My Husband and I buy native seedlings
every year from our County Agricultural Extension Agency.
They offer a variety of native flowering trees and evergreens to choose from each year. I believe this is one of the wild cherry seedlings that is now 8' tall! They are pretty and provide fruit for the birds later in the season.

Erythronium americanum - Trout Lily; Dogtooth Violet.

Trout lily is one of the early spring wildflowers.



Dog Tooth Violet or Trout Lily



Yellow Dog Tooth Violets bring me back to my childhood backyard where they grew in abundance along a stream we had flowing through our woods. I would sit along the stream in my teenage years and watch their beautiful flowers blow in the breeze. Their spotted green and brown leaves tightly covered this little mound along the bank and engulfed a large boulder that I would sit on and think about life. It was a nice place to escape the crazy life of a teen!!

 So I had to have them along my path too! However, after 26 years they are only now beginning to bloom! For several years I was surprised by one single flower amongst a sea of leaves! This year I was surprised to actually have four beautiful yellow flowers blooming! Woodland gardening takes a lot of patience - but like I have said before, it is so worth the wait!

Stylophorum diphyllum - Wood Poppy, Celandine Poppy.

A beautiful, yellow, early spring wildflower.

This gorgeous Celandine Poppy is only one of hundreds

 that bloom along my path.

I had purchased one little plant from Bowman Gardens

in PA, and thought it had died.

A year or two later, the foliage emerged, but no flower.

 However, once it began flowering in the coming years, it has spread to the point that I am passing plants along to neighbors or to who ever would like one!!

They do create beautiful drifts of yellow flowers, are native, and bloom for along time!  So, I think I'll let them stay!:-)

  Claytonia virginica - Virginia Spring Beau nty,

 Narrow-leaved Spring Beauty.

 Early spring wildflower that can be 4 to 12 inches tall. Very similar to

 Carolina Spring Beauty - C. caroliniana - with the primary differentiator

being the leaf shape. It is protected in Massachusetts, New Jersey,

and Rhode Island as an endangered or historical species,

according to the USDA Plants Database.

While writing this, I actually learned something

 I didn't know about Spring Beauties. I have to make a correction on last weeks walk when I showed a picture of Spring Beauties. I knew that the two patches of spring beauties I had along my path had the same flower but different leaves, however, I never took the time to look into why! Now I know that the picture above is the true Virginia Spring Beauties and the picture last week is actually the Carolina Spring Beauties! They are both beautiful, very delicate, very similar flower, but the difference in leaves was the give away!! I also didn't know that it is an endangered species. I am thrilled my little plants are happily spreading along my path! I don't know if they were endangered years ago when I first planted them but I always stress to everyone how important it is to buy wildflowers from a reputable source that grows them and doesn't take them from the wild! 





This is a picture of the Carolina Spring Beauties and White Common
Violets that happily grow this large rock.

 

Mourning Doves



As I was strolling along taking pictures I had two mourning doves keeping an eye on me. I love hearing their owl type sounds that they make, in fact when we first moved into this house I thought I was hearing an owl!! The joke was on me, when I put up my bird feeders and realized that the sound was coming from them!  I couldn't believe I was fooled!! I still love them anyway and enjoy having them around to keep me company!
 



There was also a lot of commotion going on briefly in my neighbors tree that is close to our property. I think some mating was going on!!  It was hard for me to identify what type of hawks they were but my guess was either cooper hawks or possibly the broad shouldered hawks that have recently nested nearby for the last two years! So, I will probably be seeing a few more of them later in the spring!

A section of my woodland path filling in with spring plants. 

The squirrels have been chasing each other around the trees and the male cardinals have been sweetly feeding their female sweethearts from the bird feeders. It's spring!

Love is in the air!!!

See you next week!

Tracey :-)



 

Wednesday.s Woodland Walk

This is one of the many birdhouses scattered along our woodland path. I painted this birdhouse with my children about 10 years ago. It has had many occupants over the years, but the past couple of years I noticed during very bad rain storms, you can usually see a little face peering out! Our gray squirrels are quite inventive and have renovated many different items around the yard (many of them my birdhouses) into little safe havens! 

 

Goatsbeard (Bride's Feather's) - Arnucus dioicus

A wonderful 3-6' native woodland plant. Arnucus means goat beard in greek.  I love its airy white plumes of tiny white flowers that rise above many of the other woodland plants.

Orange Honeysuckle - Lonicera ciliosa

Vines are also an interesting part of a woodland setting. Many times here in the east you will find virginia creeper, boston ivy, escaped wisteria vines and many other vines, climbing up tree trunks, rocks, or along the ground.  Many of our trees were covered with wisteria vines when we bought our home.  Wisteria slowly strangles your trees to death, so we cut them all down and had to diligently keep an eye out for newcomers.  We also had virginia creeper, that too lovcs to climb up the trunks of the trees giving a beautiful vertical dimension to the woods, however, I like to keep them short enough to be able to keep it under control.  

 Along our back fence I planted orange honeysuckle vines for added privacy from our neighbors. They can grow up to 18' along the ground or scramble up fences and other vertical structures. They are so pretty with their beautiful yellow/orange trumpet shaped flowers. However, the berries on this plant can be mildly poisonous if eaten by people, so beware of planting this if you have small children.

Hummingbirds love these vines!

 

Yellow Foxglove - Digitalis grandiflora

  They really stand out in the woodland setting with their pretty pale yellow flower spikes and dark green leaves. 

Oakleaf Foamflower 

The native foamflower bloomed earlier in the spring, but this is a hybrid called the oakleaf foamflower, receiving that common name because of the shape of its oak-like leaves. It is blooming now during the late spring.

Thanks for joining me on my woodland walk. 

See you next week!

My Collection of Trilliums on Wednesday's Woodland Walk

 Trillium erectum 'album'

Ahh, I just love trilliums! It has taken me years of patience to finally be able to enjoy a woodland path that is dotted with a variety of these amazing flowers! It can take up to 6-8 years for a trillium to go from seed to actually flowering, but it is soooo worth the wait!

Trillium

I discovered my first trillium while digging up ferns from a property that was going to become a road into a new housing development. I had obtained permission from the builder to take whatever plants I wanted since they were clearing everything and would soon be paved over with asphalt!  (Note: It is always important to get a property owners permission before taking a plant.  Many wildflowers are in decline, some are endangered, because of people taking them from the wild or over development. So I highly reccommend finding a nursery that grows wildflowers to buy from, unless, like this situation where the plants will be killed from construction).

It was a little nodding trillium, standing alone in the path of destruction. I'm so glad I was there to rescue it!  They are not the showiest of trilliums because its flower nods down below its leaves. After years of it blooming for me, the past two years it abruptly stopped, it is growing heartily and has actually multiplied into several plants now, so where the flowers are is another mystery!  I only have a picture of its leaves, which I'll spare you!

Purple Trillium - Trillium etectum

Many of my trilliums came in a mail order of purple trilliums years ago, they were shipped to me bareroot by a wildflower nursery. To my surprise, I think I only received a couple of actual purple trilliums.   After many years, some are just now blooming and they look a bit different!  So, I'm a bit baffled as to the exact name of some of the trilliums that have now begun blooming, one is even yellow! (I'd be thrilled if someone could identify them for me since I have spent hours on the internet trying to accurately ID them.)  It is important to make sure that the nursery you purchase wildflowers from, commercially grow them, and don't collect them from the wild. A practice we don't want to encourage since they can deplete them from an area. )

Sweet Betsy (Yellow form) orToadshade Trillium - Trillium recurvatum 'Shayi'

Whatever their names, I enjoy being surprised with their beautiful flowers each spring!

Yellow Trillium - Trillium luteum

Trillium means three-parted lily. Trilliums have three whorled leaves and a three petaled flower that comes from the center of the leaves. They can vary in color, size, mottled or solid green leaves and a host of other differences, so they can be a bit difficult to identify correctly!

Western White Trillium -Trillium ovatum (?)

White trilliums start to turn pink once they have been pollinated! This really confused me before I learned this fact. One day I was looking at a beautiful white flower and then a few days later I came out and found a pink one in its place!! I thought maybe the garden fairies were playing a trick on me!

White Trillium - Trillium grandiflorum

 Some interesting facts about Trilliums: 

* The White trillium has been known to symbolize the Holy Trinity in the Christian faith, because it's parts are in three's representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being one.

*It is said that picking a white trillium off a mountain brings rain!

*The white flower of a White Trillium often is used to symbolize purity, beauty or recovery.

* The root of a trillium is used in natural medicine for a variety of ailments. 

*It was given the nickname birthroot by the indigenous North Americans who used it as a birthing aid!

*It is the state flower of Ohio.

*It is the emblem of the province of Onterio, Canada.

* Ants are the main source of how trillium seeds are spread!

Prarie Trillium - Trillium recurvatum (?)

Trilliums are often a favorite flower for the white tailed deer to dine on. Picking a trillium can seriously injure or kill the plant taking years for it to recover. Before we raised the wire fencing on our property, I had to put wire cages on my plants so they wouldn't be eaten by our local deer!

A little collection of trilliums along my woodland path!

Hope you enjoyed your walk with me today!

Have a great week! :-)

Tracey