July 12, 2023

Missouri Botanical Garden – June 2023 (1)

July 12, 2023/ Gwen Morrison

So much to see at the Missouri Botanical Garden…

The Climatron is full of lush tropical plantings. Intimate landscapes of ferns and bromeliads…

Flowers (including orchids) and seeds tucked into the greenery….

Flowers and stems different than we see in temperature parts of the world.

Out in the summer sunshine…cone flowers and sunflowers thrive.

Daylilies are blooming profusely.

There was a very odd plant in Linnean House. I took several views of it…and should have taken a picture of the tag too!

I found myself interested in objects where the light was not overly bright or overhead.

And there were some places/plants that became immediately special: a large puffball under a bald cypress that was growing before the garden was started, button bush (one of my favorite native plants), and a woodland area with a gurgling stream (artificial but made to look natural, I enjoyed a short rest on a bench).

I appreciated the Stumpery garden….learning a bit about the history too.

And a few more plants I enjoyed photographing….before we went into the restaurant for lunch (and air conditioning) before we headed home.

July 05, 2022

Springfield Botanical Garden – June 2022 (2)

July 05, 2022/ Gwen Morrison

June is the month the lilies start to bloom and the beds at the Springfield Botanical Garden lived up to my expectations. The leaves were a rich green….there were lots of buds and plenty of flowers. Some of the beds had wire fencing; do the deer (or some other animal) only eat some of the lilies? I didn’t find a bed of the bright orange lilies that often grow wild along roadsides…the lilies here are the fancier kind: frilled petals, double petals, lots of different colors (even green!). Enjoy the slide show of the summer lilies.

I wonder if there will be some left in July. Now that I am a resident of the area, I am setting a goal for myself to visit the place at least once a month.

December 22, 2021

My Favorite Photographs of 2021

December 22, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

It was a challenge to pick one picture from each month of 2021 to feature in this post….but a worthwhile exercise. I did not use consistent criteria for my choices, so these images are special for a variety of reasons.

January for witnessing interesting bird behavior – A bluebird on our deck railing looking up at our bird feeder full of other members of the flock…waiting a turn!

February for learning to make high key images – A high key image of a lily….the flower purchased at the grocery store. I had just watched a video about high key photography and was thrilled to have some easy successes.

March for beauty old and new – The crocus were out at Brookside Gardens but I found the remnants of last seasons flowers more interesting.

April for a bird trusting that I wasn’t a threat– A bird looking rather assertive. I had paused its search for food in the leaves to make sure I wasn’t a threat; evidently I wasn’t because it went back to its search a few seconds later.

May for memorializing a bird – A juvenile little blue heron in the cattail leaves at Josey Ranch in Carrollton TX. It had a broken wing so I think of this image as a monument to its short life.

June for something that only happens every 17 years – The periodic cicadas seemed to be thick everywhere – even our yard. This one was under our red maple.

July for interconnection in nature– Back in Texas…am insect on a cosmos flower on a cool morning.

August for the fragile beauty of a new butterfly – A monarch butterfly seconds after it emerged from its chrysalis is our front flower bed.

September for capturing a small thing, seeing it better than I could with my eyes – Some birds nest fungus in the mulch at Howard County Conservancy. I was thrilled that I had my gear (phone, clip on macro, clicker) even though I hadn’t planned to do any macro photography!

October for being in a river – More macro photography – this time the wing of an insect on a rock just above the water line….photographed on a volunteer gig before the students arrive.

November for the colors of the flower – Another view of a cosmos flower. I like it when the light is such that a black background is possible.

December the new orb sculpture at Brookside – A surprise (for me) at Brookside – I hadn’t seen this sculpture before…and I also enjoyed the holiday lights (missed them last year).

October 25, 2021

Photographing a Day Lily

October 25, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

I noticed a stalk of day lily buds in the front flower bed recently – one of the few day lilies that bloom both in the spring and fall; it was something to bring inside rather than leave for a deer to eat! There were two types of photography I wanted to do with the flowers: macro and high key. Fortunately, several of the buds were mature enough to complete their development in my office.

The high key images were done with the first flower early in the morning with my Canon Powershot SX70 HS – handheld but stabilized on my knee as I sat in an office chair rolled to the far side of the room so that the zoom would focus. I had the vase with the opening flower positioned in front of the lamp.

I tried three different positions for the flower. Which do you like best? I think the last one is my favorite.

Later in the day, the flower had opened completely, and I put the vase in my office window that gets afternoon sun.

Another bud matured and opened a few days later…my opportunity for doing some macro shots. I used my phone with a clip on macro lens…discovered that my clicker’s battery was dead so I used voice commands to take the hand held pictures (voice commands do not work as well has the clicker since the timing is not as exact). The vase was on the window ledge on the cloudy day.

I started out taking macro images of flower parts.

Then I noticed some white ‘foam’ and then something that moved. There were tiny insects on the flower and remaining buds! The one with defined antennae had very delicate looking wings. In the last image, it looks like one of them has just shed its skin (and is standing on it). The one with the wings might be an adult and all the rest are larval stages of that insect.

August 25, 2021

Emerging Monarch

August 25, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

I went out each morning after finding the Monarch butterfly chrysalis on the day lily leaf; on the second morning that the chrysalis had turned from pale green to clear – the indication that the butterfly was almost ready to emerge. Since I hadn’t seen any Monarchs in our yard this year…I decided to attempt capture the emerging butterfly with my camera.

I came back 30 minutes later…thought perhaps the chrysalis wall was weakening…that some parts in the middle were beginning to split. I had changed to my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS), mounted it on a monopod, and was sitting on a comfortable stool.

30 minutes later it looked like the top – above the horizontal row of gold dots - was beginning to split.

Another 30 minutes and I was out again – zooming in with the camera and thinking, at first, that nothing much had changed. But then I noticed some action on the other side of the chrysalis.

I changed to video since I knew the emergence would happen very quickly. It is not a great video (I need practice with video as much as I do with macro photography!) but I learned a lot from watching it later. The chrysalis did crack open but not exactly in the way I anticipated. What I was seeing at the top of the chrysalis was the abdomen of the insect which was huge! It must contain the fluid that is needed to expand the wings. The papillae on either side of the proboscis moved a lot at the beginning and I wondered if they were somehow involved in the fluid distribution or simply cleaning up the area around the face. See the video here.

After the video of the main event – I went in to let my husband know it had occurred and came back out to finish the event with some photes. Over the next 30 minutes the butterfly’s wings continued to unfurl and expand. At some point the butterfly ejected the extra fluid in its abdomen.

30 minutes later the butterfly finally opened its wings. Note that the abdomen is smaller than when it first emerged and it is probably a female.

What a great way to start the day!

August 24, 2021

Macro Photography Practice (5)

August 24, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing my practice sessions…

Finding the Monarch chrysalis was the prompt for the fifth practice. There are so few of them these days; very different from the 1990s. I sat on a gardening stool to be comfortable and worked to get magnified views of the golden beads and the top of the chrysalis. The water droplets were just nice ‘extras.’

While I was busy with the chrysalis, a cabbage white sat for a few seconds on a nearby plant. It wasn’t a good angle and the picture is not sharp…but it was the first active insect for my practice session. I’ll be trying for more of these. The trick it to practice enough to be able to focus quickly!

I practiced on a mint flower and a leaf….higher magnification that I’d attempted before.

There was a sticker like weed (one that I pull when I find it) within easy distance of my seat on the stool so I did a series of images – with increasing magnification. It was a more interesting subject than I anticipated!

I tried the same thing with a nearby day lily leaf – without as much success. The colors are somewhat interesting but my focus is off in some of the images…..more practice required.

Previous practice post: 1 and 2 (includes gear); 3 and 4 (includes some indoors images)

August 23, 2021

Day Lily Leaves

August 23, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

In the later part of summer, I always cut the day lily leaves when they start to turn yellow so that they come back with new growth that is fresh and green until the frost. It probably reduces the amount of bulb growth underground but the beds are so dense in the beds that it doesn’t matter. Last year it happened in early August. This year the leaves stayed green longer. Maybe we got more rain or maybe the temperatures were better for the leaves to continue growing – or maybe their season is longer now due to climate change. The two areas we have day lilies are in the front flower beds and around the base of our oak tree.

And every year, one of the tools I use is the old hedge trimmers I have from my grandfather.

He gave them to me when I bought my first house in the mid ‘70s; the handles were already mended. They must be over 50 years old and maybe much older! They are a wonderful reminder of him. I like using them more than the electric hedge trimmers because of the good memories that crowd into my mind when I pick them up (and they don’t bother my hands as much as the vibrations from the electric trimmers do). I also think how much things have changed since he was born in 1901…the way we now live on the Earth with a lot more people and technology that is damaging the planet…how we have to make some difficult changes to enable ourselves and future generations the quality of life on Earth that recent past generations experienced.

The area around the base of the oak was trimmed all the way around. When the new leaves come in they will cover over the mess. I noticed one side was lower than the other and realized the deer must have been nibbling there. The bed near the house was another story. I got about half done – avoiding cutting any of the black eyed susans – when I stopped because of a small discovery.

Do you see the Monarch chrysalis on the leaf (near the center of the image)? I was surprised to see it since I hadn’t seen any Monarch butterflies or caterpillars this year in our neighborhood. I’m going to take a daily picture of it until the butterfly emerges.

Tomorrow’s post will include a few macro pictures of the chrysalis so stay tuned!

August 16, 2021

Macro Photography Practice (1 and 2)

August 16, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

My husband got me started on a more advanced form (for me) of macro photography by sending me some YouTube links (this one from Micael Widell was the first) and identifying the gear that would work with my Canon PowerShot SX70 HS. After talking to me about the possibilities with my camera and sending some sample images he had captured with a similar set up on his more substantial camera to encourage me (posted a few weeks ago here), he ordered the filter adapter for my camera…

I used the same diffuser that fits over the front of the camera as he used with his camera (we got another one since we will be going into the field together once I get enough practice).

The new gear purchases were about $100. Here’s the way my camera looks ready for my practice – from the front and back. The idea is to be able to hand hold the camera (i.e. no tripod) – often with one hand – when in the field.

The technique works best with manual focus and flash…two features of my camera that I haven’t used very much. The idea is to set the manual focus to a particular distance and then leave it alone in the field and simply move the camera to get the focus desired.

It was easier for me to start with plants in my yard in my first sessions. I found that I could get reasonable results with autofocus (still having to move the camera to get the focus on the part of the image I wanted) for plants…but it takes more time than manual focus….which would be problematic for insects that are more likely to move.

Here are the collection of my best images from my first two practice sessions.

Black eyed susans

Mint flowers

Lichen and moss

Ninebark leaves

Bush cut branch and water droplets on leaves

Wild strawberry

And finally – an insect during my second practice session.

The image below is cropped from the image on the left above.

Overall I am pleased with my first attempts…but still need more practice!

July 22, 2021

Springfield Botanical Garden – Part 2

July 22, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

The day lily garden at the Springfield Botanical Garden offered many colors and sizes of day lilies…many with water droplets from the early morning rain. I enjoyed photographing them…trying different types of compositions.

There was a butterfly on some zinnias planted in a bed neat the lilies. This has not been a good year for butterflies in Springfield or at my home in Maryland.

A dragonfly perched on a dried stalk…kept coming back to the same one. I was thrilled to get a zoomed picture. It looks a like a female Widow Skimmer….but not a perfect match - the dark patches on the tips of the wings does not fit although this is the underside of the wing and the pictures I was using for ID all are from the other side.

It was getting hotter, and we closed the loop back to the car. There was a line of cars coming into the garden as we were driving out. Our visit was well timed!

July 12, 2021

Day Lily Portraits

July 12, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Day lily flowers are at their best outdoors in the morning….just after they open.

We have day lilies in three areas of our yard: the front flower bed near the garage, in the back in an area close the house that now gets too much shade for them to do well, and at the base of the oak.

Most of the buds are eaten by deer before they can open so I try to cut the flowers if they manage to open outdoors and the buds when they are large enough to continue their cycle in a vase. The images below show a bud that opened indoors on the first morning….and one that had opened the previous morning.

I like to try high key images with the day lilies indoors as well.

The flowers dry and fall off after they bloom. They retain some of their color and I like the curls, twists, and wrinkles.

I also photograph them with the clip-on magnifier for my phone…and the clicker to cause the phone to take the picture (making it easier to hold the phone steady). The color and texture look different when they are magnified. The pollen is visible if a petal did not cover it as the flower dried.

June 15, 2021

Enjoying Home

June 15, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

There is so much to enjoy about just being home. Even yard work is appealing! On the third day back – I was out early with the goal of cleaning out the front flower beds. I didn’t have enough energy to set the goal to completing the job…instead strived for two wheelbarrow loads back to the forest/brush pile. It was not too difficult and my long sleeves/gauntlet gloves protected my hands from poison ivy (there might have been one plant) and blackberry thorns.

I took short breaks to photograph tiny mushrooms, blooming clover (the clover we planted last fall in the problem areas of our yard is growing well), cicadas at every turn, and tiny blooms on our bushes.

I already have plans for another round in the front yard and then will begin work on the chaos garden (which is completely wild this year).

My husband and I have enjoyed some short ‘field trips’ to Brookside Gardens and to view the recent partial solar eclipse. One field trip per week is probably about right for us – even though we are still spending most of our time at home. We are choosing venues where there are outdoors…usually in the morning (sometimes very early)…where there are unlikely to be crowds. There are a lot of places we’ve enjoyed in the past that we haven’t been to for over a year!

Since I knew I would be going to Texas several times this summer, I opted to not sign up for the CSA this year; I’m going to the Farmers Market instead which happens ever Sunday. It’s worked well so far. I got spinach, broccoli and snap peas the first week…spinach, squash, and artisan bread with pecans and golden raisins the second week (the spinach is for green smoothies). I’m still a little overwhelmed with veggies since my husband doesn’t eat them…but I know how to freeze any that I have left over!

Last Sunday when I was pulling into the driveway after my trek to the Farmers Market, I noticed a lot of cicadas on the day lily leaves growing around our oak tree. Do you see three in the picture below? The temperature might have still been a little cool for them to be flying around. One of the things I like about our yard is how much wildlife we have around!

I picked up some cicada carcasses from the driveway and did a little macro photography after I put away the produce.

I also brought in some stalks of day lily buds; it’s the same every year at this time – cutting the buds as soon as they are big enough to open in water…before the deer eat them!

I enjoy just about everything about being home…rejuvenating myself for my next foray away in mid-July.

March 21, 2021

Our Yard – March 2020

March 21, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

It was a great March day – cold in the morning, warming to the mid-50s by the afternoon, and almost no wind. My plan was to walk around the yard - see what was coming up and clean out the compost bin…restart with the small amount of veggie kitchen scraps I had accumulated over the past few weeks. I did the compost job first: using a pitchfork to move the contents from the old turtle sandbox (my compost bin), dumping the bucket I keep on my deck for kitchen scraps into the near empty bin, putting a layer of leaves from last fall onto the top. I’ll be adding a layer and/or stirring it up every week now that it’s warmer.

2021 03 IMG_3953 (2).jpg — I took stock of our early spring bulbs. The regular sized daffodils I planted about 5 years ago are just beginning to bloom but the miniature ones that started with a few bulbs my mother-in-law bought for us over 30 years ago are blooming profusely. I’ve discovered that they last a long time as cut flowers as well.

The crocuses are fading at this point. There seem to be fewer each year although I have started noticing them in different places than where the bulbs were originally planted. Maybe the squirrels move them around (and sometimes eat them).

The day lilies are coming up. The deer have already nibbled the ones that are around the base of the oak tree near the mailbox.

The mini clover we planted last fall appears to have survived the winter although it hasn’t started growing a lot yet. I hope it will expand its growth and bloom/make seeds. Near one of the patches we filled in with clover, there is a small plant with blue flowers already blooming. The Maryland Extension has a page on ‘spring weeds’ which helped me identify it as

It’s a weed but not invasive. In a recent webinar for Brookside Gardens volunteers about sustainable gardening, I learned about spring weeds that can often be left alone. They cover what would otherwise be bare ground, offer food for pollinators in early spring and will be overtaken by other plants as the season progresses. In this case, it’s likely that the mini clover will grow over the area during the summer and there won’t be as much speedwell next spring. Even if there is some – I’d rather have a yard that provides food for pollinators…particularly early in the season!

October 27, 2020

Our Neighborhood Pond – October 2020

October 27, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

It was cloudy and damp when I started out at midday for a walk to the neighborhood pond. I keep telling myself that I should make the trek more frequently because there is always something of interest along the route or at the pond itself. Maybe I will do it over the next few weeks…until the weather gets too cold.

The first surprise was a stalk of day lily buds. This is the second year that one plant has tried to bloom in the fall. If these buds get far enough along toward blooming – I’ll cut the stalk to bring them inside since otherwise the deer or a frost will get them. It would be wonderful to have the flowers indoors.

I also noticed that not only are the mock strawberries getting some reddish leaves…they are also producing new fruits!

The walk to the pond was full of walkways intermittently filled with leaves or pine needles. (There is a curb concealed under the pine needles!)

I got to the pond and took pictures of plants gone to seed and reflections in the water. The largest tree at the pond’s edge is a willow. Part of the tree has a lot of shelf fungus and no branches with leaves…standing deadwood. The pond was very quiet…the raucous red-winged blackbirds are gone and the frogs too cool to be calling.

The milkweed pods in the meadow next to the pond were disappointing. It has been so wet that the even the pods that have split open are not spilling their seeds. I did notice one plant with some early instar milkweed bugs. I’ll go again after we have some dry days --- and hopefully see lots of fluffy milkweed seeds swirling away in each little breeze.

As I started back toward home, I noticed that the oak that had some dead lower branches has been trimmed. Maybe the trim will help the tree survive. Unfortunately, it’s not the only oak in the neighborhood that has had problems in the past few years.

Overall – a good walk on a damp fall day!

October 25, 2020

Fall Foliage in our Yard

October 25, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

The fall is in full swing around our yard. The oak and sycamore and tulip poplars are more than halfway through their fall. The red maple is about halfway through. I’m sharing our yard’s fall foliage in photos today….before we do another round of leaf mowing. This is the view from my office window…a pine on the left then a tulip poplar and then the red maple.

f 2020 10 IMG_2511.jpg — At ground level in the back yard you can see the understory of spice bush (yellow) and the dark tree trunks (the red maple in the foreground); it’s been foggy on most recent mornings. The brush pile catches a few leaves.

m 2020 10 IMG_2526.jpg — The maple does not seem to have as many pure red leaves this year. There is another maple behind the tulip polar that always turns yellow and I think one of the maple leaves below is from that tree.

t 2020 10 IMG_2524 (1).jpg — The tulip poplar leaves turn brown very quickly once they are on the ground so it is a challenge to get some with lots of yellow.

I have taken a lot more sycamore leaf pictures this year. I’m not sure it is it the size variety of the durability of the leaves once they are on the ground. The leaves are large and leathery which make them easier to rake…and really need mowing keep them from killing the grass and clover in our yard.

The tree got a late start and didn’t manage to make very many seed balls because of the cold weather back in May…but there are certainly a lot of leaves to mow from that tree!

The Virginia creeper on some of our trees (oak and sycamore) and the exterior basement wall are changing color too.

The oak leaves that are falling now are brown…with an occasional flash of yellow.

And then there are invasive ground plants that are changing from green to yellow and red. I would rather not have them….but they are hard to eliminate.

There are things other than falling leaves that I found when walked around the yard.

A harvestmen spider

Deer trimmed day lily leaves at the base of the oak tree

The micro clover is doing very well…still very green and spreading

A garden spider with 2 stink bugs in its web

Spider webs in the azalea bush…maybe funnel spiders?

Overall – a lot of evidence of the season in our yard.

July 22, 2020

Last of the Day Lilies

July 22, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

The last day lily opened a few days ago so I am savoring what is left of them today – the last of the day lilies for this year. I collected the spent flowers as they fell from the stalks and took them out to the glass topped table on my deck to photograph for the grand finale of their season. The orange ones were the most plentiful, the yellows were the largest and the dark red (purple when they dried) were few but spectacular.

I like the textures and shapes of the dried flowers. Many still have deep yellow pollen showing. The flower collection is back inside now…waiting to see if my husband wants to do some macro photography with them. Eventually they will go out to the compost bin.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Big cooking day. I like to fill the oven when I turn it on at all during the summer. This time I had it on for an hour with the salsa meatloaf going in first….then a zucchini squash custard (45 minutes)…then corn on the cob (30 minutes). I sautéed an onion to top the meatloaf. Good eating! It also felt good to clear the crisper of the last of the corn, onions, and zucchini since I have another CSA share to pick up today! I still have beets, leeks, fennel, carrots, and cauliflower….and not much freezer space.

**Grapevine wreath**. After a round of yard work back in June, I made a small grapevine wreath. Now – a little over a month later – it is thoroughly dry. I like the way it looks, particularly the little tendrils. I’ll add a festive ribbon and use it for indoor holiday decoration….or maybe I’ll use a ‘ribbon’ of orange or apple peel. Then the whole thing could go into the compost pile in the new year.

July 17, 2020

Tomatillos!

July 17, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

I was pleased that tomatillos was on the list in the CSA newsletter for this week and were included in the medium share.

Last year I made green salsa. I might do that again although I am keen to try some new recipes this year. And there is a beauty to the husks that are removed….enough to prompt a Zentangle!

My first use of the pound of tomatillos I got this week was to include them as an added ingredient to a chicken stir fry I make frequently. I bought bell peppers to include but the onion and garlic scape were other items from the CSA. And I ate the stir fry over a salad of lettuce, fennel, and cucumber from the CSA too. I hope we are nearing the stage where I am not putting as much into the freezer from the CSA shares (my freezer is almost full of frozen veggies).

Other plans for the tomatillos: 1) raw in a smoothie with melon and 2) stir fry then folded into taco filling. Maybe I’ll get some hot peppers in coming weeks from the CSA and make green salsa again – but that will be a later share of tomatillos.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

**Last stem of yellow day lilies.** The multiple buds on the last stem are continuing to bloom…almost one per day. There are still two more bud that might be big enough to open.

July 15, 2020

Yard Work

July 15, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Lawn mowing day! My husband had decided that the lower dew point and humidity would mean we could start mowing a little earlier while it was cooler. We were both surprised that the grass was still a little wet at 9:30…and the day was heating up fast. He decided to start anyway, and I started on other yard work – planning to take over mowing to give him a break – or finish up. My plan was to take the kitchen scraps that had accumulated in the garage out to the compost bin then cut the day lily leaves around the oak and some plants that were growing a bit too exuberantly over the sidewalk from our driveway to the front door. Here are the before and after pictures of the base of the oak. I’ve learned in years past that cutting the day lily leaves after they bloom encourages them to grow back fresh – looking good into the early fall. It probably means they don’t produce as many new bulbs, but I don’t need any more bulbs! The Virginia Creeper shows up more in the ‘after’ picture.

In just about every task I complete in the yard – I come up with several more. On the other side of the oak, I discovered a small English ivy climbing up onto the tree. At first I thought it might be nice to let it grow on the trunk of the tree…but as I was getting ready to write this blog post I checked to see what the Maryland Extension said about English Ivy. It’s invasive and it can damage trees by holding moisture against the trunk (fungal disease and decay) and it can be a reservoir for bacterial leaf scorch in oaks. So – I’ll be cutting the English Ivy and checking periodically to make sure it doesn’t come back.

I decided to check on the Virginia Creeper. It’s native but can take over. I’ll leave it on the oak but monitor it just as I am on the sycamore in another location around the yard.

The trimming of the plants growing over the sidewalk was done quickly but I found a lot I need to do in the front flower bed. The mint is blooming so it would be a good time to do another mint harvest.

I’ll be cutting the day lily leaves in the front flower bed too and while I am at it, I’ll cut the milkweed plants that are infested with aphids or have curling leaves.

The milkweeds have been a deterrent to the deer eating the day lily buds developing behind them, but now that the flowers are over for the season the milkweed can go – unless they have a monarch egg or caterpillar. So far, I haven’t seen any, but I’ll check closely before I cut them. On the plus side - there was a ladybug near one of the infested pants that might reduce the aphid population.

I’ll leave the milkweeds that have a flower forming

Or have a colony of milkweed beetle nymphs!

Since my husband opted to mow more this time, I had time to sweep up the tiny acorns (immature) that had fallen on the driveway and put them in the mulch around the oak.

I will divide up these next tasks into 15-20 minute chunks easily done in the morning….finish them this week as follow-on to the lawn mowing.

July 13, 2020

Bird Feeder Camera Snippets

July 13, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

Every week – I download the videos accumulated on the bird feeder camera and note any of special interest. Here are some recent finds:

On 7/6: A male finch appeared to be feeding a fledgling. The young bird found balancing on the perch somewhat challenging and kept flapping its wings to say in place. It also couldn’t seem to figure out how to get seed directly.

On 7/8: There was a squirrel that tried to get seed from the feeder. The springs worked to shut off the seed holes, so the acrobatics were for naught.

On 7/9: The bird feeder camera captured the goldfinches which I also photographed with my camera (included in the 7/10 blog post). It was interesting to see the different angle of the action. The bird feeder camera didn’t start recording until the house finch was already gone.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Last of the day lilies from the flower bed. The deer got more of the day lily buds than I did. I cut the last stalk that survived because it was tangled in the branches of a nearby bush. The buds should open nicely in the vase on our breakfast table. They will be dark orange…. descendants of the bulbs by mother-in-law bought about 30 years ago.

The two stems I cut a few days ago are blooming in the vase upstairs in my office. There are still several buds developing…should keep my office in fresh flowers for 3-4 more days.

Once the day lilies are gone, the front flowerbed is going to be all green. I thought I’d have black eyed susans but the deer have eat all the buds this year already! I’ll rely on the CSA cutting garden for the rest of the summer.

July 09, 2020

Neighborhood Pond in the Early Morning – Part 1

July 09, 2020/ Gwen Morrison

2020 07 IMG_0537 (1).jpg — Our days have been hot and humid recently. I started on my walk just after 6 AM when the temperature was in the low 70s and the humidity was about 90%. My destination was the storm water retention pond in our neighborhood. The moon was still visible above the trees. The day lily leaves and Virginia creeper at the base of our oak looked very lush as I picked up sticks that had fallen on the driveway. I’ve learned to cut the day lily leaves after the bloom period so that they grow back fresh and lovely in August and into the fall. That job will be done in the next few weeks.

I saw a black feather on the sidewalk along the way. Maybe from a crow?

2020 07 IMG_0537 (4).jpg — When I got to the pond, I heard frogs and red-winged black-birds but didn’t see them immediately. I took pictures of the calm pond…the humidity clouding the air at first – the reflections on one side of the pond looking hazy. Then, a short time later, some reflected color from a different angle that darkened the vegetation to silhouettes.

I heard some splashing and then a bird larger than a red-winged blackbird flew up into a tree. My first thought was maybe a heron. I found it through the zoom on my camera. It was a Green Heron with a fish!

It started moving to swallow the fish and this sequence is from just after the bird stilled after getting the positioned and swallowing.

The green herons have so many different ‘looks’ because of the way they can move their necks. There are times they don’t look all that much like a heron.