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's Woodland Walk - Join Me!





Shooting Star - Dodecatheon meadia


Welcome to my wednesday woodland walk!
This week the weather
couldn't seem to make up its mind! One day it felt like summer, 
 the next day, I was trying to find my favorite warm sweater to put on! After a bit of a dry spell for the past several months, we had rain all weekend. We really needed rain and I'm very thankful for it - - - - -but do we really need that cold raw weather with it?

 Today, its still cold and a bit gloomy. The sun has been playing peek-a-boo with me all morning. On the bright side, the rain and cool temperatures will prolong my beautiful spring flowers much longer than if it stayed hot and dry!

White Shooting Stars and Pink Bleeding Hearts



My white Shooting Stars are blooming right now. They have beautiful spring green colored leaves that just seem to pop against the darker foliage around them.  Their amazing white flowers bloom above the leaves on tall stems allowing the flowers to hang down in white clusters, their petals grow upwards and pushed back, making them look like little shooting stars. A definite favorite of mine!

There is also a pink shooting star which is gorgeous.  I actually have one, but something seems to always happen to the flower stalk before it blooms. Last year I sadly watched my dog step on it before I could shoo her away! I guess I need to protect it somehow! 

White Bleeding Hearts

White Bleeding Hearts are just as pretty as my pink ones, they aren't as striking a color as the beautiful pink bleeding hearts but they will brighten up any shady spot in your garden. Like many of the other spring empherals, they will eventually finish blooming and their foliage will quietly die back leaving no trace of it ever being there until next year.



 



  White Trilliums, Yellow Celandine Poppies, Red Trillium,

 and Pink Bleeding Hearts snuggle around a rock

 in my sitting area along my woodland path.

My Sitting Area is one of my favorite places along my woodland path. It was inspired by two towering black walnut trees standing side by side, calling out for a bench! Across from them, sat the rock in the picture above. It was covered in virginia creeper, and other plants when I discovered it. I also created a very rustic little stone patio with the rocks I uncovered around our property while digging  other gardens, linking the bench between the black walnut trees and the large rock.  For years its been evolving as I add or change plants when necessary.

 

Oakleaf Foamflower - 

Tirella cordifolia var. collina 'Oakleaf'

I have two types of foamflower growing along my path.

 Last week the Allegany Foamflower (Tirella cordifolia) began blooming and this week the Oakleaf Foamflower has begun flowering. Don't tell them - but this one is my favorite. Their leaves are oakleaf shaped with a tinge of red and their flower buds are a deep pink opening into a pale white/pink flower, giving it that two-toned effect. They are so pretty!

Red Trilliums and violets happily growing near this protective

 rock along the path.

This is a closeup of a Red Trillium-Trillium erectum

I adore Trilliums!

 One of my goals was to establish them along 

my woodland path. I've since been successful and have white, red, and yellow trilliums. Starting with one or two plants they have finally established themselves and are multiplying very slowly, but surely. Ants are one of the chief ways seeds are dispersed. Trilliums generally take 5 years to flower from seed, which is one reason mine are multiplying so slow!
  

My Woodland path is so gorgeous, new wildflowers are blooming every day.

I hope you join me next week!

Tracey :-)

I would love to hear from you, please leave a comment, or share the type of wildflowers that are blooming in your part of the world!!







A Yellow Sea of Poppies! -Woodland Walk Wednesday

Yellow Celandine Poppies & Virginia Blues have filled

 my little patch of Heaven with a golden yellow glow!

It's hard to capture how magical
my woodland garden path looks at this moment!  
During this time of year, in my little patch of Heaven,
 the woods are aglow with hundreds of Celandine Poppies!
These beautiful yellow wildflowers are in full bloom!

While the poppies are dominating the woods
right now, there are many other native wildflowers mixed in and gorgeous in their own right. 



 Bleeding Hearts, White Foamflowers, and Blue Violets



!

Pink Bleeding Hearts

 Allegany Foamflower

Some of the flowers along the path aren't so obvious!

They make you search to find their flowers!  Right now, its the Wild Ginger plants, and soon it will be the Mayapples!

Wild Ginger patch along the path.

Their heart shaped leaves hide little maroon flowers. 

This is the maroon flower of the wild ginger plant.

 There is only one flower per plant, 

it is small and close to the ground.....

 very hard to find unless you know where to look for it!

Although I like to plant new wildflowers where I think they will thrive and be happy, I often find they will eventually move
 where they want through seeds or roots!! 

Mayapples pushing up through the mulch along the woodland path.
Notorious for spreading aggressively by roots, these will have to be moved
 or they will be trampled.


The beauty of the natural garden
 is finding a balance between keeping some structure, but also allowing the plants to find new places to settle -

like nature itself. 

Surprised by a yellow violet nestled in between the rocks
 at the top of a wall. Violets are the free spirits of the native garden!
They can pop up anywhere- but I love them and happy
 to see them most anywhere. They are a host plant and source
 of food to many butterflies and insects. There are
 certain varieties that are much less invasive
 than the common purple and white varieties.

White Trillium- It's taken me years to finally have a variety of Trilliums
growing through out my woodland garden.
The deer love to eat these!

Jacob's Ladder 

I'll end this walk with a picture of the Red-Bellied

 Woodpecker. He was busy hammering away on the tree limb above me while I was busy taking pictures for this weeks walk.  I'm so fortunate to have many different woodpeckers take up residence in our woods! I've learned through the years how to tell them apart by their call. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker has a loud chu-urr, chu-urr, chu-urro. You can find out more about this bird by clicking on  the link Red-Bellied Woodpecker below.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker - He's about 10", has a barred

 black and white back and upper wings, with a striking red crown,

 nape and lores. This little drummer is a male.

  If you look closely, they have pale red-bellies!

  

Until 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 :-)



 

Woodland Walk Wednesday - Come Take a Walk With Me!



Common Blue Violet in the white form- My first violet of the spring just bloomed today
! I just love them! I have collected quite a few different varieties that
  I will share with you as they bloom. Shortly they will all be
 filling my woodland path with beautiful drifts of whites,
 purples, yellow and deep magenta pink!



 I'm so glad you were able to join me this week!

I've been busy working in my yard, trying to get my fertilizers down before it rained. Having a shady yard and woodland path, I have alot of rhododendrons, azaleas, and many other acid loving plants, so I give them a fertilizer that is specially formulated for acid loving plants. I like to give them a boost of nutrients for the growing season!

Persian Pearl Tulip(Tulipa humilis persian pearl)- This striking little tulip
 has naturalized itself along the woodland path.
 When I first planted them, our dog was just a puppy.
 As I dug the holes and dropped the bulba into them,
 our puppy was right behind me digging them up and chewing on them!
 Needless to say, I would have had a lot more of these!

  For the first time since I created my woodland path, I decided to also add a little tiny bit of fertilizer to my woodland garden. After rejuvenating the paths, and mulching the beds, I thought, why not rejuvenate the plants that live there too!  Hopefully, there will be alot more blooms to enjoy this year!



Kaufmanniana Tulip (Variety-Ice Stick) - Beautiful species tulip that grows about 12"HT.



I love to always add a selection of bulbs to my plantings.

  Little by little through the years, I have added species tulips and a variety of other bulbs to my woodland path. Unlike the hybrid tulips in your flower garden, they don't need to be replaced each year or two, instead they will come up every year and naturalize into colonies if they are happy where they've been planted. However,The squirrels seem to like my crocus bulbs,
so I have given up on growing them!

 Bleeding Hearts are beautiful when in bloom, but I think they are
 so graceful and colorful when they are coming up too!

Every day there are new plants popping up through the mulch. I find they can be just as beautiful on their own. Many new shoots start out one color and then mature into another color. Here are a few that are coming up now.

 Spiderworts are grasslike plants with beautiful flowers.  I love the
striking colors of the chartreuse green and deep crimson color sprouts.



Saving the best for last, are the fiddle heads that poke up and begin to
 unfurl into beautiful ferns. I have many different types of ferns along my path each
one with its own unique looking fiddle heads and later fronds.

My  Hummingbird feeder in red is hanging off a garden hook that has a
 kiwi plant growing up it. The green birdfeeder I temporarily put into the stump
 of the tulip tree we just took down until I decide what to replace it with!
 This bird feeder is supposed to be squirrel proof,,
 but they quickly figured out how to adjust their weight
so they can quickly grab a seed or two!! They're so clever!!



Walking along the woodland path I can always hear a variety of birds happily chirping! The chipping sparrow, junco, nuthatch, tufted titmouse, downy woodpecker and the carolina wren are a few of the regular birds I see along my path and at my feeders. Today there was a large Turkey Vulture circling above our property.  I have to wonder if it is looking for lunch - my yard is like a buffet for the hawks and larger birds of prey. I have many bird feeders, a small fish pond, and lots of bluestone walls filled with chipmunks--- what more could they ask for?! 

Yesterday, our local Wild Birds Unlimited newsletter mentioned that the hummingbirds are back in NJ.  They reccommended putting out our hummingbird feeders now, since after their long migration they are hungry and looking for food.

 I decided to finish our walk

at the hummingbird feeder I just put up today! I can't wait to greet them back with one of their favorite treats. Usually, when they first arrive back to our area, they will fly up to my kitchen window and look in as if to say- I'm back, where's my treat?  This year I will surprise them and have it waiting for them! If you would like to track the hummingbirds in your area, click on this website and find out when you should put out your feeders!

http://www.hummingbird-guide.com/hummingbird-migration.html

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/humm/spring2012/update040412.html

Hope you enjoyed our walk! Come back next Wednesday to see what else is going on along the path.

I would love to hear from you !

Tomorrow I will be showing a few of my favorite garden items found on Etsy and Artfire!

Have a great week!

Tracey:-)

Spring is Here - Come Take a Walk With Me!



 Hellebores are one of the earliest flowers to greet you in the very early spring.

Here in NJ there are few woodland flowers that are evergreen.  This year we are having record blooms!

They are also known as Christmas Rose or Lenten Rose because of their resemblance of a wild rose and they often bloom around Lent. Deer won't touch the Many of the Hellebores are toxic if ingested. 

 

I think spring IS finally here!

 If you read my earlier post on Groundhogs day, I think

 Long Island's Groundhog 'Chuck' had the winning prediction - spring is here!

 My woodland path is beginning to wake up from this mild winter 

and becoming alive with spring flowers! I get so excited each spring when I can finally go outside and be surprised each day by another emerging plant, or even better---a flower!

Spring Beauties are ephemerals that bloom in the spring and then die back by the summer.
 Mine are in full bloom along my path. Sensitive to light conditions, Spring Beauties
will close up their flowers on a cloudy day and at night, then cheerfully open up
for you on a sunny day!

  

With camera in hand and sometimes my coffee too,

 I love to go out each day and take pictures of the nature that surrounds me. In the spring, my woods are filled with ephemerals (wondering how to pronounce that? i-ˈfem-rəls) which are plants that grow, flower, and die in a few days.


Many of the plants I'm sharing with you today are ephemerals. (Spring Beauties, Dutchman's Breeches,
Glories of the Snow, Winter Aconite, and Bloodroot)





 Dutchman's Breeches are another spring ephemeral woodland plant that has striking
white flowers that look like little britches turned upside down! One of my favorites! 
Soon Violets and Trilliums will be replacing these unique flowers as they die back until next spring!





These beautiful purple/blue Sharp Lobed Hepaticas
and the white Round lobed Hepaticas (below) grow to about 4"-6" ht.
Butterflies, moths, bees, and beetles are some of the known pollinators. 

 



These are the white Round Lobed Hepaticas.
 Both Hepaticas grow in nice little clumps and flower before their
 new leaves emerge from the ground. They retain many of their leaves
 through out the winter and are quickly replaced
as the new foliage unfolds.



Unfortunately, this winter we had to take down one of my favorite trees. It was an amazing Tulip Tree that was estimated to be 135' to 150' tall! Needless to say, we got a lot of wood and mulch from this beloved tree!

 Our Tulip Tree that had been taken down.

 We were able to replenish the mulch on our entire woodland path! Being so early in the season, we decided to bring in several truck loads of shredded mulch from our local recycling center to cover all the plant beds around our house and along the path! Our woods never looked so good in February.

Our newly mulched woodland path. 

Now its toward the end of March and each day I'm surprised with new plants popping through all that luscious dark brown mulch!



 This is a little sitting area along our path. The bench sits between two very large black
walnut trees.. The blue Glories of the Snow and white Dutchman's Breeches surround the rock.
  When they die back later in the spring, Sweet Woodruff, Trilliums and Bleeding Hearts
will take over.

 

 Glory of the Snow - Beautiful blue flowering spring bulbs that have naturalized
through out my yard and woods. They create a beautiful blue carpet of flowers
 right after my white Snowdrops are finished blooming.





 Winter Aconite -  Cute little yellow flowers that grow 1-2".
 They are will die back once the tree canopy gets dense by late spring.
All parts of this plant are poisonous.




 Bloodroot - Amazing little woodland plants that have beautiful white
 daisy like flowers. I love the way their one large leaf wraps around their stems
 while they are in flower, and then unfurl once the flower fades..
. They get their name because they store sap in an orange red rhizome
 below the soil. Eventually they will grow into large colonies!

I have been adding to this woodland path for about 26 years now.
 It has been a real labor of love! Not everyone weeds their woods (twice a year) so these native gems can grow and thrive! Most have been purchased from places that have propagated them from seed - and not collected from the wild. When starting these plants from seeds it can take YEARS before I will get a flower! But it is so worth it when I finally look down and see that very first bloom! There is just something so enchanting about a wildflower.....I've been in love with them since I was a child!

I hope you enjoyed our first walk and become a wildflower enthusiast too! I'd love to hear about your plants, any questions I can help you with, or just say hi!

My woodland path walks will be on Wednesdays! I hope you can join me! :-)

Tracey