A hawk decided to visit our pond today – I wasn’t home, but a neighbor alerted The Spouse, who took some pictures. Apparently, it wasn’t hunting, but rather looking for a bath in the pond. Any birdwatchers out there able to ID this from these photos?
Archive for the ‘Wildlife’ Category
6 Aug
Flowers and critters
The front-yard rain garden is still pretty sparse, as one might expect for a first-year bed of perennials. However, the nodding onion (Allium cernuum) and sweet black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia subtomentosa) are putting on a small late summer show. We have confirmed that both our tadpoles have turned into frogs, but it’s still unclear to me [...]
20 Jul
Good weather for frogs
The rain I’ve been hoping for – a nice steady rain to make up for the dryness of the past month – fell yesterday. Unfortunately, that was also our pond tour day. So, instead of spending the day in the backyard, we set up camp on our big covered front porch, escorting the occasional umbrella-laden [...]
7 Jul
Mid-Summer Update
The hydrangeas — oakleaf & Annabelle — are in full bloom now, and the bees just love the Annabelle blossoms that have reverted to the wild type. The oakleafs are the bees’ second choice, and the regular Annabelle blooms are practically ignored. Does anyone know what kind of bee this is? Gloria? There are lots [...]
22 May
Late spring developments
I’m still in the dark about whether I inadvertently planted an invasive bittersweet, but that’s not the only thing going on these days. The wild hyacinth (Camassia scilloides) that I got last fall from Prairie Moon nursery is blooming! It’s not as showy as the garden hyacinth that bloomed in early spring, but it’s still [...]
14 May
Another bird sighting
This indigo bunting stopped by to take a bath while I was using the sprinkler to refill the pond. I saw one just about this time a year ago, so perhaps this is a regular stop on its migration route. This shot was from the 2nd floor through the windowpane.
11 May
Stone Silo and a bird
I went a bit overboard ordering from Stone Silo this spring – I ended up grabbing at least one of each plant they had that grows in clay and likes at least some shade (and that I don’t already have). The result was two heavy boxes on the porch this week. All the plants were [...]
18 Apr
Project Budburst, New Bird, & An Earthquake
I got to enter my first observation at Project Budburst today: the forsythia got its first blossoms overnight. And yesterday I saw what I believe is a hermit thrush for the first time. I didn’t hear it singing; it visited the pond and I identified it by its reddish tail (which it flicked quite a [...]
21 Mar
Who is pruning my shrubs?
Annabelle hydrangea before I pruned it myself. Someone’s been pruning my shrubs over the winter, and it definitely wasn’t me. When I first saw all this damage, I thought it might be from the heavy snows we’ve had this winter, but the stems don’t look broken. I don’t prune my oakleaf hydrangeas, but someone does. [...]
