May Apples, Cat Birds And Wire Worms

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Just a quick update -
Busy, busy!!!
I've gotten tons of WinterSown stuff transplanted to the flowerbeds . . . finally! This weather has been crazy. We had another freeze Wednesday night, so I was very glad I was a slacker getting things planted.

Time for some crappy pics. I think someone messed with the camera settings and I can't get a good pic of anything lately!

I finally got a bloom from the May Apple. Yay!



Unfortunately, something ate the buds off the Virginia Bluebells and there's no sign of the Blood Root this year. ~sigh~

But the Cat Birds are back (my nosey birdie), so that's another yay! They haven't been here long enough yet to start getting comfortable with me enough to almost let me touch them. It won't take them long. It never does :)



And (gross out warning!!!) the wire worms are already out there in huge numbers. I don't mind spiders, snakes, bugs, but these things totally gross me out! Ick, ick, ick! I imagine you're pretty darn glad that this pic is awful . . .



Happy (spring has started - for real) Gardening!
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Live Eagle Cam

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This is very cool: Bald Eagle Nest Cam in Virginia

Eaglets are scheduled to be banded Wednesday, March 31 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Follow the events in person at Norfolk Botanical Garden, or online on Eagle Cam.

I hope y'all can be on tomorrow to see it!
Pass the word. Quick! lol.
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Impatience

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Spring seems to have sprung everywhere around the country except for here.
Fine! I'll just have to give it a little push . . .



I think Mr. Cardinal agrees with me. Hurry up Spring!



Happy (impatient for spring) Growing!
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Coleus - First Color

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The coleus I sowed on February 1 are starting to show their first colors:



This one is from a packet that I bought. I usually harvest and save my own in the fall, but for some reason I didn't do it last fall. I'm not sure if it was because it got too cold too quickly or I simply forgot. Both reasons are equally likely.

I'll probably end up with a dozen or so plants to spread around the shade garden and containers. With the trees having to be removed every few years, the amount of shade in my yard is shrinking quickly. The last, a large maple that got hit by lightning last summer and a tornado a few years ago, may have to come down this summer.

I'm glad I whined about not seeing much of the flock of robins that stayed around all winter - maybe they heard me since they've been showing themselves a lot more lately. Ok, so it has nothing to do with me, they're more interested in searching the mulch pile for bugs. That pile is apparently heating up pretty well as it's the only thing for miles that's almost bare of snow.



And some sad news - I think there's a hole in the liner of the bottom pond. Argh! I'm so mad!
That'll be something to deal with come June.

Happy (coleus) Growing!
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Winter Robins & Icey Beauty

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I was rather jealous of Flighty when he posted about his robins on the 21st.
I hadn't seen mine since December and was missing them.

People think they're strictly summer birds that leave for warmer parts in fall and return come spring, but this isn't completely true.
Though solitary birds most of the time, those that choose to stay around for the winter, mostly juveniles, will flock together and show up periodically through the winter months.

Even though there were about 50 of them in my yard, I wasn't as lucky as Flighty to get a good closeup shot, but I did manage to click a couple of one of them,



until he noticed me.



They are shy birds most of the time, but I've found that in winter they are overly skittish. I don't blame them since it's a lot harder to hide in all this winter bareness.

Since I had the camera out and the sun peeked out for a few moments, I thought I'd take some pics of these beautiful sparkling gems . . .



(I don't know what happened when I took this one, but it looks cool)



This is my favorite-



Although I am terribly sick of all this snow (another 10 inches coming today) there is still so much beauty out there it might not be all that bad. Yeah, I'm fibbing - winter still stinks!

Happy (winter beauty) Growing!
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The Nightmare Bed

Everyone has one of them.
You know - those flowerbeds that, for multiple reasons, just suck.
This is my major nightmare bed:



I actually took a picture a week ago of how bad it looked, but I must have accidentally deleted it. It was awful! Packed root to root with weeds. It took 4 full days of weeding to get this mess cleaned out and looking decent. Needless to say, I lost tons of plants from this bed this year. Yup, it's my nightmare bed.

This is what it looked like last summer:



It is so bare! It won't be for long, though.

Some random yard pics - because I can! lol. Ignore the weeds, please, there are only so many hours in a day.

Not a very clear picture, but the birds seem to be completely fascinated with the majesty palm. I've tried to catch a pic of them, but the only one that would stay still long enough was this red winged black bird.



The catbirds are back and following me around the yard again. They are so curious! I call them my nosy birdies. (yeah, my neighbors think I'm strange, too). But the catbirds answer me, so it's all good. lol. Of course, I haven't thought of snapping a pic of them.

The real randomness:

Iris and poppies looking better every day. I don't know what variety the iris are, but they smell just like lemons! Seriously! People stop and sniff the air trying to figure out why they smell lemons. :)



The peonie and weigela hedge.



Looking fab! (So, of course, a downpour is due.)



The front (mostly) perennial bed.



The shade bed.



My favorite right now - snow white columbine.



I think it's time to stop taking pics of the yard and get something done . . . like go weed out the beans.
:)

Bird Wave

We just saw the most freaking amazing thing - a gigundo bird wave!
There must have been a million birds, all turning and swooping like ocean waves over the open fields and trees. I haven't seen one in a very long time, and wow, I'd forgotten how impressive it is to watch every single bird in a huge cloud all turn and dive or climb at exactly the same time, as if triggered by an invisible signal. No leader, no follower - just perfect synchronicity.
Amazing! And very, very cool.
We kept staring and exclaiming our glee, like children at Christmas.
Oh, to have a video camera! Or, at least a digi cam. Urg!
We had that vertigo feeling a few times while staring upwards - as if the whole thing were some computer generated vision and not really real.
What an awe-inspiring, jaw dropping, exhilarating sight.

Flying Things

In early May, I spotted six Black Swallowtail caterpillars on my reseeded dill plants.
The cats were large - at least to the fourth instar, and a couple looked closer to the fifth and ready to pupate. I was surprised at their size since it was so early in the year and I hadn't yet seen a BST anywhere in the yard so they must have been from overwintered eggs. DH and I kept a pretty close eye on them as the dill was just starting to get some growth on it and there was no way it would last through all six to pupation.

Then they started disappearing. Unfortunately, I didn't feel much like raising them inside this year and the wasps took them all. So when I spotted six more cats, all between their first to third instars, on my parsley in June - they promptly hit the old aquarium in the house.

When I've raised them in other years, they've been quite happy with dill, and only dill. When offered parsley, wild carrot and bishop weed, all were ignored but the dill. This year, as the parsley plants were all still very small and not going to make it through all of them, I again tried offering the different host plants. To my surprise, almost the moment that I introduced the bishop weed, all other food sources were completely ignore! Which was perfect since I have tons of that friggin' weed - unfortunately.

So, now all but one have pupated and I'm waiting on the first to eclose any day now. I dunno what the deal is with the smaller cat - he doesn't seem to be in much of a hurry to bulk up or pupate. I've never had one be this slow before. Maybe he's just a slacker.

On another note - the Gray Catbirds are back and being nosier than ever. Yeah, noisy too, but these birds are nosey. We have nice conversations every morning as one particular curious male follows me around the yard. He's decided that a ten foot distance between him and I is satisfactory. lol, if the neighbors ever saw me out there first thing in the morning with my hair a mess, a cup of coffee spilling from my hand as I bend to inspect a flower or bug a tad closer and conversing with a tag-along bird who's watching my every move...
He's taken to watching me through the screen door in the mornings if he thinks I'm slacking on the morning walk. The female is much more wary and pays no nevermind to me at all. I think I've figured out where their nest is. The second pair have snubbed me altogether and could care less.

The wasps seem to be really numerous this year compared to other years. Something got into the bumble nest that was under the pond waterfall. Bummer - they were such fun to watch. Maybe they'll build another nest somewhere close enough for me to find. The honey bees; few, and no swarm was seen this year. Very, very unusual as we've had at least one come through the yard every single year for as long as I can remember.

The Monarch count: 1 male.
Also very unusual as we normally have tons flitting through the air by now. And I haven't spotted an egg. Not one. Weird.

The female Redheaded Woodpeckers is feeding twins in the front yard snag. Yay! I spotted carpenter ants at the bottom of the trunk though, so we may have to cut it down after all. I'd rather not, but I don't want it taking out the electric lines when it falls, either. The little ones should be getting close to taking their maiden flight.

I've scared two herons away from the yard and ponds so far this year, and the hubs spotted a White Egret, or it was possibly, I think, a Little Blue Heron (though he insisted not and I wasn't going to argue). He saw the entire bird while all I saw was the shadow, so all I can say is that the sucker was friggin' huge, whatever it was. As long as it stays away, I could really care less what it really was. lol.

The amount of crows hanging around the area this year is amazing! I'm not sure how many this particular murder contains, but they've taken to raiding other birds nests for the eggs and babies. It took them from the time I came inside to grab the laundry until I came outside to hang it on the line to clean out the poor Robin's nest she'd built in the pear tree. I felt so bad for her! They swiped one recently hatched baby and two unhatched eggs. I just caught the last crow flying away with the hatchling in it's beak as I came out the door. Poor Robin! Sometimes, I wish I owned a gun.

Both the Cardinals and Bluebirds are back, so that's good.

The hubs built a large Hummingbird feeder this year with PVC pipe as we had so many last year and I couldn't keep up with filling them all. Strangely, we only have a few this year. Maybe 8?

Our flying wildlife seem to be getting fewer and fewer (well, the good ones) every year. Not good. I wish the neighbors would get with the program and start creating some habitats for them.

The Sap Is Running

You know how I know?
I saw it. I actually saw it with my own eyes.
Not in a good way.
We have a half-dead maple tree in the front yard that I've been refusing to cut down. I've left it as a snag for the Red-headed Woodpeckers, and it worked. Every spring, when they've finished emptying the matted mess of leaves the squirrels have packed the holes with all winter, we get to watch (and listen) to them situate the place to suit them.

Yesterday was a shock.
While I was out messing with the front flowerbed edging, I kept hearing something that sounded like a waterfall, but I knew it couldn't be ours as we haven't started up the pond one yet. I have ear problems, and most of the time I only have partial hearing out of one ear or the other, and lately my right ear has been plugged up completely, so I figured it was just an echo from the creek as all the snow melt and rain have turned it into the rapids.

But, even an echo from running water wouldn't sound like falling water! I walked a few yards away and didn't hear it anymore, shrugged and went back to the edging.

There was that sound again! Honestly, I thought I was losing my mind.
Then this dummy finally looked up.

Sap waterfalling, and I DO mean really waterfalling from one of the holes in the tree! There were gallons and gallons pooled at the bottom of the opposite side of the tree I was working around.

I have never seen anything like this in my life! Yeah, droplets rolling down bark, or drips from small winter wounds, but this was as if someone had turned on a bathtub faucet. It was so unreal! I swear it had to be at least (at the very least!) a gallon a minute! A true waterfall of sap.

Man, oh, man, I wish I had a freaking camera. I figured the hubs would never believe it. The flow had slowed down by at least 3/4 by the time he got home, but he could still see the big puddle at the base of the tree.

It was the strangest thing I've seen in a long, long time. I think the poor thing is a total goner this year. Bummer.

And no - I didn't think to grab some buckets. ~sigh~

Ut-Oh!

I wonder what's going on?
For the last 15 minutes, thousands upon thousands of geese have been flying from the north, over the house and landing in the field across the road.
There must be millions out there right now!
It's like a huge, swirling tornado of wings as they turn and curve over the spot where they've decided to land.

We've seen thousands over the last few weeks, but this is like every single one of the one's that we saw go north have decided to turn around, come back and bring friends all at once! And wow, are they loud. The noise is deafening.

And hot on their tails are thousands of sparrows and tons of blackbirds.

I wonder what the heck has them so spooked? It's like someone to the north hit the panic button.

I'm going back to staring up at the sky...

*holy cow - now, ducks too! The rain/sleet/freezing rain/slush falling from the big, gray sky doesn't seem to be bothering them a bit.

Snow Geese

What a beautiful sight to see on Easter.
They'd stopped in the corn field in the afternoon and took flight, heading straight north, just before sunset.
I don't think there's another bird more awesome to see in flight soaring over your head.
I haven't seen any for years, so this was quite a treat.

Red-Winged Blackbirds Are Back!

I heard a flock of robins singing yesterday, but they sometimes stick around all year, so I ignored them.

But, right now there is a (very loud) flock of a good 250 to 300 Red-winged Blackbirds in the tree right outside my sliding glass doors!

Yes!! They're back! Spring is here!

In about an hour I'll be wishing they'd shut up.

The Hummers Are Coming!

It'll still be quite a while until they get this far north, but they are on the way. Yay!

Here's the Migration Map for spring 2008. It might be time for some of you to get your feeders ready!

Such A Joy To Be Outside

A couple days of 90 degrees and everything goes gangbusters.

Some WS'd petunias have buds on them...finally! Marigolds are growing at an unbelievable rate, after sitting at a standstill for what seems ages. The Toad Flax is blooming. (thanks Don!) It is sooo cute! The WS's crackerjack marigolds I planted in the containers by the pond are blooming. :-) The butterfly weed seeds Sissy sent are ever so slowly growing. (I don't know what I'm doing wrong with them!) And I got one Datura from the seed she sent, which surprised me - I figured I'd get none at all. It's a good foot and a half tall and bushier than anybody's business!

My husband is a genius. Of course, since we hit 90 and there's no water to do a water change in the pond - the koi spawned. ~sigh~ WHY, for pete sake, why? Not that I wouldn't be happy to see a few babies, but not when they make such a friggin mess and the ammonia skyrockets. Ugh! Anyway, D figured out how to finagle a sort of 'fry coral/playpen thingy before the big piggers could slurp all the eggs up. He slapped together some pvc pipe he had left over from the pipes bursting last winter, and I cut and sewed an old curtain into a rectangle that we slid over the frame, added some extra pieces of pipe insulation foam and voila!...a floating egg/baby fry containment system. I've got the frog spitter aimed into a corner of it for oxygen and a little water movement. Heh, the big boys aren't to happy their banquet moved to an unreachable spot. Tough! Hopefully there won't be too many hatchlings. The consensus seems to be that they do much better in the pond than they do when they're brought in to an aquarium, so we'll see. I'm really glad we figured out this setup, because no way did I want to deal with setting up an aquarium and doing water changes every day. This way, with the clean spitter water going in at one end and the ammonia exiting (pretty much everywhere), it's a constant water change.

The pepper plants are more than happy with this mini heat wave. They're turning into bushes! There are tiny toms on all the tomato plants. Only one of the zucchini seeds Kim sent germinated, but we all know what you can get from just one, so I'm happy! I guess I just had to be a bit more patient with the broccoli - the heads have gotten huge! The cabbages are coming along great, and the brussel sprout plants are hip high! Man, are they gonna be something when they start producing! The watermelon germed better than I expected, though they had a setback with the chilly weather earlier last week. And the Once In A Blue Moon pumpkin seeds Kim sent are going nuts! I can't wait to see how they do! And the cukes are really happy campers as well.

The parsley that didn't really do much last year (I'd purposely planted them for the butterflies) but has grown into a monster shrub this year and is covered with butterfly caterpillars. They've eaten most of the top 2/3, and I'm hoping they'll be enough to hold out for them. All the butterfly bushes are doing fab! The last couple days of major heat and humidity have given them a grand boost.

The inpatiens that I wintered over are really looking nice and bushy, and finally putting on a nice bloom. I grabbed a few Siberian Iris that someone had put beside the road for free, and I know where I want them to go, but I can't get them in the ground just yet - a golden finch decided to build her nest in the wild raspberry bush ouside the bathroom window and I don't want to disturb her or the babies. They're so cute! They're the only baby birds I've ever seen that don't make any noise when you come near the nest - just gawk with their mouths wide open. How funny they are. :-)

The bee balm is budding and almost ready to bloom, the nasteriums are huge and loaded with color. I think my favs are the striped yellow and orange. Ok, maybe the deep maroon. Well, I really like those pale yellow...oh, I love 'em all!

And the Moonflower vines are doing very, very well. I can't wait to see blooms!

It took me a week, yes, a week to weed between the sones in the pathway, even with DD's help. (I was absolutely shocked she wanted to!) I'd really like to fill them with something, but I don't think I've ever seen seeds for Baby Tears or Corinthian Mint. I certainly couldn't afford to buy them. That's quite a bit to cover. Besides, I've heard Baby Tears have a nasty habit of being invasive and I will soooo never plant anything that is invasive ever, ever again! Uh-uh!

Things are looking better, bushier and lovely. I spend every single spare second I can find out there and it's good to be ouside these days...even with the daily watering. But, that way I get to really see what's going on up close, enjoy the growth and the beauty, and talk sweetly to everything telling it how wonderful it looks. Shhh! My neighbors probably already think I'm nuts...

I Didn't Ask For That!

I just wanted some rain (which we got enough of to barely wet the surface of the soil), I certainly didn't ask for a tornado! Bah!

Thank goodness it never touched down. My fool husband stood out there watching. Of course, stupid me stood outside and watched the one heading for town last year (June 30) while he was busy running to the cellar with the kids from the one that actually hit us from behind. Still haven't gotten the damage from that one fully fixed, much less do we need another :(

This weather is just crazy this year. I don't think I've ever seen such extremes. Wicked snowstorms and thunder boomers, sure, but tornadoes around here used to be a phenomenon. I think I have pics from the one that hit us back in 84, since it was so rare we were all out snapping damage pics. Not so much anymore. Seems we see funnel clouds 2 or 3 times a year now.

My WS'd flowers are humming along at a very, very slow pace. I'm starting to wonder if they'll even get big enough to bloom before fall. I have had to resist the urge to water them mid-day.

We have a very tiny pepper coming! Yay! I can't wait to start cramming those in the freezer. I better not count my chickens just yet. ~crossing fingers~

Oh! And the redheaded woodpecker has build a nest in the snag on our front lawn! YES!!!

So exciting!

My red-headed woodpeckers are back! Yay! They are the most beautiful birds ever. I just found out they're on the threatened species list, which makes seeing them even more exciting.

The humming birds are back and flocking to the feeders like crazy. Their little territorial dance is cute, but annoying at the same time. Didn't their mammas ever teach them to share? It's not like there aren't enough feeders all over the lawn.

Spring is most definitely here. (I'm avoiding the fact we may have a few snowflakes in the air tonight, so, shhh!)

Everything is so green! Have you ever noticed how everything looks so much of a brighter shade of green in the spring? I swear, it is! Ok, so maybe it's just me and it's the same shade all summer long. :-)

There needs to be a seperate measure of time for gardeners. I need something like 80,000 daylight hours in a week. Yeah, that'd get me close to getting everything done. Not! I was actually really ticked off the other day to have to drop everything and do the laundry. Apparently people become disgruntled when they run out of clean undies. Grrr...I think domestic duties should be banned from May 1st until October 1st.

I can't stop smiling over the woodpeckers. If you ever spot one, you'll understand what I mean!

I'm Blind!

Ok, not really, but I don't remember the sun being so bright! Wow, has it been that long since I've seen it?

I can't get on Garden Voices for some reason, which means I can't get my daily fix. Ugh! 'page cannot be displayed, page cannot be displayed'. Just gimme the damn thing already!

One of the woodpeckers flew into my glass doors today. I thought he'd killed himself. I was so upset! Then D noticed he was breathing, so I quickly grabbed a shoe box and some tissue. The poor thing! He was so floppy, and I was trying to be so careful. I certainly didn't want him stabbing me with that beak of his. Of course, Des wanted me to bring him in the house and I had to explain to her that if he came-to in the house he'd just fly right into the window again trying to get out.

His poor mate was so confused! She wasn't sure whether to hang out and protect him or get while the getting was good. She didn't fly far and kept a vigilant eye on me while I was nestling him in the box.

It took him a while and a bit of head shaking to really come around, but he finaly did and flew a few feet away to the maple and his waiting mate. I think he was still a bit fuzzy and it took him quite a while, even with her prodding him, to get with the program.

Poor thing! I hope he wasn't too traumatized and will return soon. I bet he'll know better next time.

Ragweed Woes & Woodpecker Wanderings

Ragweed - it's everywhere. For some reason it exploded in my flower beds this year, and you just can't get rid of the crap. Maybe it's the weather we've had, maybe its finally gotten the army coordinated enough to swallow the world. Obviously, its harassed the Goldenrod to fall into flank behind. I don't really mind the Goldenrod so much. It doesn't have nasty pollen, though that myth is well circulated, and it is kinda pretty.

I have a beautiful woodpecker that visits daily, but let me explain the visit; It consists of him first checking the bird feeder D made attatched to the side of the house beside the sliding glass door. Now, there better be something good in there for him or I'm going to hear about it! If he finds nothing to his liking, it's straight to the living room window to hang on the screen, give me a good view of his butt and stare at me for some length of time. (And I'm glad I can't speak bird because I'm betting he's getting out a long string of bird-cuss). If this doesn't produce my attention, well, maybe some banging on the window sill will!

D realized the other day that he's begun to bring friends, and lots of them! I must have at least 5 different species hanging on my half-maple every day now. Absolutely wonderful to watch, but God forbid he ever teach them the 'screen hang-and-moon' technique!

The really bizarre thing is that the purple finches and chickadees will not come near the feeders if the woodpeckers are hanging out. Maybe the red headed repeated some rude gossip.

On a way off subject: I was hanging out at UKBob's and something he wrote reminded me of the Fuller Brush Man. Do you remember him? No? Don't want to admit your age, eh? ;)
I remember my grandmother buying all sorts off cool things from his magic case. It seemed he could pack anything in that sucker! And the Charlie Chip Man! (you can actually still order Charlie Chips from the net!) I simply adored those tins, and the chips weren't too darn bad either. I haven't thought about either of those door to doorers in years. Thanks for bringing the memories back Bob! Ah, the good old days.