Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Updates, a Life Bird, and Potager's Progress

It occurs to me lately that much of the good stuff on this blog happens in the comments, and as a result, doesn't get the prominence it deserves. Also, I tend to write of mystery plants, birds, bugs, etc. and then don't update the post when I learn the ID. Soooooo.....this post is to tie up some loose ends.

Thanks to bek, I now know that the mystery oak galls are Wool Sower Oak Galls.

Thanks to the kind folks at bugguide.net, I believe my first bizzare-o insect of the year was the caterpillar of a Red-Spotted Purple butterfly.

Thanks to Squirrel, I knew that yesterday (or was it Thursday?) was International Migratory Bird Day. I celebrated it by doing some front-porch birding and saw a life bird. But Ms. Smarty-pants here was so confident of the ID that she failed to observe all the field marks and now is uncertain. When I first saw the all-blue bird in the treetops, I immediately thought Indigo Bunting, and kept right on thinking that until just before I lost sight of the bird. In those last few seconds, I thought I saw a rusty red streak on the flanks. Hmmm, well, the Blue Grosbeak has a rusty red wing bar, and furthermore, this seemed larger than a finch-sized bird. So now I'm about 70% sure that I saw a Blue Grosbeak, with a 30% chance that it really was an Indigo Bunting. Either way, it's a life bird for me.

Other birds of note yesterday were Great Crested Flycatcher very close to the house in the morning, and in the afternoon by the vegetable garden 2 Pileated Woodpeckers in some kind of altercation, with one pursuing another across an open field. They're even more awesome in flight with red crested head and bold black and white wings.

Still no ID on the big mystery seed pod, but I found another just like it while working on the vegetable garden yesterday and ta da! - it has at least one seed in it. I'm going to plant it and see what sprouts.

Wild orchid foliage? This is what I noticed last weekend, and recently found another one some distance away. I was waiting for a good sunny day to take a photo, but had to settle for using the flash.

And when I said the ditch had turned blue with Salvia lyrata? This is what I meant.

Lastly, Happy Birthday to my vegetable/herb/cutting garden and/or nursery bed. I'm going to keep calling it a potager. Early in May last year, we starting digging. One year later, we're still digging, but there's visible progress. We're messing up the symmetrical layout this year by adding a column of beds along one side and potato bins on the other. I plan to bring it back to some kind of symmetry, but probably not this year. And I've just discovered that the lower part of the garden has a drainage problem. Last year, no rain, no drainage problem. This year, lots of rain, big drainage problem. The sage, rosemary, horehound and shallots are all drowning, but the garlic doesn't seem much affected. Four rosemarys were supposed to anchor the corners of the design, but one got chewed off last fall and the drowning one looks like it's on the way out. I either need to fix the drainage problem or rethink my design, or both. (Disclosure: I cropped out the poor suffering waterlogged plants on the left side of the photo.)

A few closeups from the potager:

The Mexican mint marigold either self-sowed or lived through the winter sheltered by Provencal thyme.

We're going to have some very large garlic bulbs this year.

The rue is just starting to bloom.

The black swallowtail caterpillars are back! This year I hope they come visit when they're grown up.

Labels: birds, butterflies, oak galls, orchids, potager

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Inadvertant Nest Box

The old gray grill, she ain't what she used to be. In more ways than one. Now she's a nest box.

We haven't used the grill at Tangled Branches North yet this year. I opened it up this afternoon to see how big a cleaning job awaited me, and it was bigger than I thought. About half the grill surface was covered with a nest which I first took to be a mouse nest (we've had those before), but then in the center of the loose mossy nest I noticed tiny heads and open beaks. Oops, sorry, I'm not your mama, and I don't want your mama mad at me. I closed the lid. Yesterday and today, I had seen a Carolina Wren carrying food across the deck and I didn't think much about it except that there must be a nest close by. Later this afternoon, we watched the wren carrying food again, but this time we saw it enter the grill through the hole for the rotisserie.

I'll take a picture of the nest after the babies have flown.

We're going out for dinner.

Labels: birds

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Firsts

There have been a lot of first-of-the-season events over the last week.

First dragonfly. Same kind as last year.

First hummingbird. It buzzed right by my head on its way to __? Somewhere else.

First singing wood thrush.

I think - think - I head the kowp-kowp-kowp of a yellow-billed cuckoo on Saturday morning, but it was hard to be sure with the flock of noisy blue jays all around.

First time I noticed the lovely scent of 'Rainbow Loveliness'. I decided to pick a tiny bouquet for the house before the rain ruined the flowers, brought it up to my nose expecting a spicy carnation-like scent, and instead got .... lilacs? That's how it smelled to me anyway. Not at all dianthus-y, but sweet and strong.

First bizarre-o insect of the year. Moth larva? I have no idea.

Labels: birds, dianthus, insects

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Catching Up

Ya know what happens when you take a week off from blogging and blog reading? You get well over 300 unread blog posts in your Garden Folder in Google Reader. Oh, and the daffodils and other bulbs continue to bloom, completely unphotographed (by me). Happily, this blogging backlog is coinciding with a rainy weekend. This morning I only have 127 unread garden blog posts.

Though I was mostly away from the computer, there were a few blog-worthy items in the past week. In reverse chronological order:

The wisteria is starting to bloom along I-64.
Yesterday, while driving through a residential neighborhood in Richmond, we spotted totally-leafed-out Japanese maples. That was a surprise - the flowering trees aren't even finished here.
We visited a HUGE garden center in the Short Pump area of the Richmond burbs. I didn't look at everything - they appeared to have a good selection of plants at reasonable prices, although nothing too out of the ordinary. They were very well stocked with tools, pricey tchotchkes, garden furniture, bird feeders, pond kits, etc.
The coriander/cilantro and radishes from seed sowed in the cold frame in late January are now are at a usable size, so yesterday's lunch was an Indian-style Omelet Sandwich with a Indianish Radish Relish.
Mid-week we visited Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of James Monroe (the 5th US President). During the visit I learned many things I should have learned in school about James Monroe, but the place just doesn't have the star power (or the extensive gardens) of Monticello, its near neighbor. Still, there are huge trees and boxwood hedges; a nice flower border currently blooming with narcissus, tulips and fritillarias; a huge rosemary blooming with the largest flowers I've ever seen on a rosemary; and in a pen in back of the house live 2 pairs of gorgeous pea fowl. Also notable was that I saw my first tiger swallowtail butterfly of the season there.
On Picasaweb, I posted several photos of a pileatead woodpecker. The first good ones I've ever taken of this cool bird.

If it ever quits raining I'll get out and take some photos of the progress of spring here at Tangled Branches, but until then I'll be catching up on my reading.

Labels: birds, coriander, garden centers, radishes

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

One Liners

Been kinda busy lately - no joke. I've even been in the garden instead of in front of a computer screen! Things happen, whether I have time to blog about them or not, so here is the briefest of summaries of things I've noticed or done recently.

Creeping Phlox was blooming Saturday in somebody's front yard in Richmond.

Red maples are blooming along I-64 west of Richmond.

Purple Finches are still at the bird feeder at Tangled Branches South.

A song sparrow was hanging around with the juncos and cardinals under the feeder at TBS on Friday and Sunday.

It was so warm yesterday I drove with the sun roof open.

Winter aconites are blooming at Tangled Branches North, but I haven't taken a picture.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' has been blooming since at least February 21, but I haven't blogged about it.

The floating hellebores' petals are still in good shape after almost 2 weeks, but the stamens are withered.

Seed starting is starting in earnest, and that deserves a longer post.

I planted coriander seed outdoors yesterday.

I just finished planting my narcissus bulbs yesterday, but don't tell anybody that.

Labels: birds, in bloom, seeds, weather

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Where Have All the Sparrows Gone?

I've been a busy citizen scientist this weekend, counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The Purple Finches are still here and I think they invited friends this weekend - I counted 10 at one time, but I know there were more. The most interesting birds I saw were 2 Red-Tailed Hawks soaring high overhead. This may or may not have been part of a mating ritual, but I like to think it was.

I spent some time walking in the woods this afternoon, hoping for better birds than I see at the feeders. Only turned up one Hermit Thrush, but while looking for birds, I found that the buds of the native azaleas have grown quite fat. Didn't have the camera with me, and it was too overcast for a good picture anyway. Last year this bloomed in April, so there should be plenty of opportunities for photography between now and then.

Speaking of buds, another citizen science project getting some publicity these days is Project BudBurst. (Note to organizers: the name sounds like an exploding beer can. I'm just sayin'.) I first learned of this about a month ago in a post by Xris, and Pam and Ki have also posted recently. This sounds like fun, and I have several of the target species growing in uncultivated areas of the property. I wish I had bothered to identify my maples last year; I assume they're red maples but I'm not certain they're red maples. They would certainly be one of the first to burst forth - I noticed the red buds today while looking for birds.

But getting back to birds and the title of this post, I didn't see a single sparrow all weekend. This strikes me as odd - I don't think I've ever submitted a GBBC checklist without a song sparrow or a white-throated sparrow or both. Strange.

My weekend bird lists are below:

Labels: birds, phenology, seasons

Monday, February 11, 2008

Purple Finches and the Other GBBC

I resisted the temptation to put up a bird feeder at the country house for about a year and a half. I didn't want to create a ~~squirrel~~ vermin problem where none existed, and I figured the birds had been getting along just fine without my help. But along about mid-January when I couldn't see the end of winter, my desire to watch birds while sitting by the window with a cup of tea got the best of me. My self-imposed rule was that I wouldn't buy a new feeder. Not much of a rule, considering that I had several feeders which proved not quite squirrel-proof that were taking up space in the garage. It took the birds about a week to find the feeder, but when they did, it was the same old backyard birds that frequent the northern Virginia feeders - chickadees, titmice, juncos, nuthatches. I think I was secretly hoping for something more exotic in the country. Well, last weekend I got something interesting if not exotic - purple finches!

House finches are often mistaken for purple finches (tips for distinguishing them here), and I have house finches in abundance in northern Virginia, but rarely see a purple finch there. So I wasn't expecting much when I raised the binoculars to look at the reddish bird on the feeder. Hmmm, I thought, that looks like a purple finch. And another and another and... I had trouble counting them, but I think there were about 5 adult males and 5 or 6 females or juvenile males. These two look like they just had a spat and want to get away from each other. I know, I know - don't anthropomorphize.

I hope they hang around until this weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count (not to be confusing with the other GBBC, the Garden Bloggers' Book Club). If you have a window and a spare half-hour or so, please consider participating. Sometimes you discover birds in your yard you didn't know were there. I've been counting for several years now, but I think it was my very first count where I saw my very first ruby-crowned kinglet. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been trying very hard to see and list all the birds in the yard.

Labels: birds, gbbc

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

More Signs of Spring

We were invaded by robins this afternoon.

There were dozens of them in the backyard, some scratching around in the leaves, but mostly they were eating the last of the holly berries.

They brought along at least one Cedar Waxwing.

And these Northern Flickers seemed (to me) to be involved in some kind of mating display. I know this is a crummy picture, but it was crummy weather for photography. February showers bring March flowers?

Labels: birds

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Counting Crows

It was only 2 crows, but I liked the title.

Join Shirl for the great global birdwatch this weekend, if you haven't already. Here are the birds I saw this morning. I counted most of these between 7:30 AM and 8:30 AM, but the Downy Woodpecker, the Blue Jay, and the Red-bellied Woodpecker came along later (about 9:45 AM). Since I wasn't doing an official count for the RSBP, I thought I'd include them to make my list look better <grin>. Oops, I just noticed that birds flying overhead don't count, so I'd better strike those crows from the list.

I'm trying out Birdstack, a new online system for tracking bird observations. Not sure how much I'm going to use it. I've been using eBird for years and I've gotten very accustomed to their reporting form. Birdstack is somewhat different, but they intend to coordinate with eBird in the future. One piece of information I'd like to see in the reports is the number of birds of each species for each observation. Most of the above were one or two individuals, but there were 15 Dark-eyed Juncos! They've just discovered the feeder I put up a week ago in central Virginia.

Been playing with my new camera lens, but I could use some more practice. By the time I get done fiddling with the camera, the picture comes out like this:

Labels: birds

Friday, November 09, 2007

Miscellany and Oddities

I should amend the title of the previous post to "I Was Half-Right". The subfreezing temperatures were enough to kill off the least cold-hardy plants, but the tough ones are left standing. This introduces oddity #1: A 90% frozen Alternanthera with one perfectly fine branch. The only thing I can think of is that the unfrozen branch was protected by some nearby zinnias, which then collapsed in a heap the morning after the freeze? Either that or there is some very strange microclimate stuff going on.

Today's pictures are from central Virginia, where I found the lettuce and spinach green and happy under a double layer of Agribon-19. On the way to the undercover greenery, I spotted oddity #2: one of my supposedly deer repellent plants - a nice little rosemary - was broken and chewed. Just last weekend I was admiring how nicely the 4 rosemarys anchored the corners of the potager. All spring and summer I fretted about how I was going to keep the deer away from the edibles, and all spring and summer they didn't bother much of anything. And now, when the tomatoes and peppers are frozen dead and gone, the critters come back to eat the "critter-proof" plants. I tell you, there's never a dull moment in gardening. Some of bronze fennel had the tops chewed off too. Apparently whoever did this was just tasting because the chewed-off pieces were left on the ground. BTW, something also chewed off the top of an Illicium earlier in the year - another reputed deer-proof plant.

There are foot-(hoof?)-prints all over the newly planted garlic beds too, but I can't see that anything was dug up. The soil is so sandy there that the prints are indistinct.

Maple leaves
from the November album
It's kind of a gray, ugly day today, but we have a bit of fall color in the woods, even though a lot of the leaves just turned brown and dropped during the drought. The black gums and sweet gums were pretty a few weeks ago and now have shed their leaves, but the wild blueberries and the maples are looking spectacular.

We've been busy lately and I've been neglecting my blog reading. I opened Google Reader this morning and found 150+ unread gardening posts. I'm almost hoping for a rainy weekend so I can sit around and drink tea and read blogs....

But then again, I need clear skies to look for Comet Holmes. Have you seen it? I didn't even know about it until this morning when I was blog surfing and found it on a birding blog, of all things. I started at A DC Birding Blog, where I learned that this year may bring large numbers of winter finches to feeders in the US. More on this later. From there, I read his Friday roundup, and went to check out the Harris's Sparrow on Mike's Birding and Digiscoping Blog. I noticed there a recent post on Comet 17P/Holmes. I think I need to set a timer to limit my internet time.

Anyhow, the reason I was interested in the winter finches was because yesterday I think I saw a small group of pine siskins in the tulip tree in front of the house. I've never seen a pine siskin before, so I'm not 100% sure, but they were streaky all over with wing bars and very pointy beaks. I didn't get a real good look. This site claims that they eat tulip tree seeds, and I think that's what they were doing, so it makes sense.

So in keeping with the season, my gardening activity is moving indoors to books, catalogs and the internet, and my outdoor activities have more to do with the sky than with the earth.

Labels: astronomy, birds, critters, frost, seasons

Monday, August 20, 2007

Things with Wings

Want butterflies? Plant verbena!

I was just astounded at the number of nectar-sippers hovering around the Verbena bonariensis this weekend in the country. Just in casual observation, I counted at least six different species of butterflies - Tiger Swallowtail (both light and dark forms), Spicebush Swallowtail, American Lady, Zabulon Skipper, other skippers (names still elude me - sorry), and a new one for me: the Common Buckeye. If it's so common, howcome I never saw one until this weekend?

And there was a different clearwing moth there too - this time it was Hummingbird Moth, and I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to photos. I restrained myself and only posted four of them (1,2,3,4).

And speaking of embarrassment, after Lisa wrote last week that she only gets good photos of butterflies when they're mating, I claimed never to have seen such a thing. Well, look (adults only, please). I think there will be more Snowberry Clearwing Moths.

While I was taking these photos, another absolutely huge moth landed on a tomato plant. I have only a crummy picture to prove it, but I think it was a tomato hornworm adult.

More from the crummy picture department. I tried several times to get a good picture of a hummingbird this weekend. I failed. They were almost constantly feeding on the coleus flowers in front of the house, except not when I had the camera in hand. There is a hummingbird in this picture, but I'll let you search for it yourself. I think I'll try Ki's suggestion and see if I can get some decent video instead. Check out the huge coleus plants though. The tallest ones are close to 4 feet, not counting the flowers.

Labels: birds, butterflies, insects, moths

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Summer Hummer

Labels: birds

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Rara Avis

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the very rare black-and-white winged golden hummingbird. I think this may be a new species.
From Tangled Branc...

But seriously folks, I have no idea what these goldfinches think they're doing on the hummingbird feeder, unless they're convinced there must be sunflower seeds in it somewhere. Just last week I replaced "their" feeder with the hummingbird feeder. Apparently they haven't quite figured it out yet. I don't think it's possible for them to get at the nectar.

Labels: birds, NoVA

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

CeVa Journal: Wildlife

Wild turkey and wood thrush. Whatever next? I was hoping to see new birds at the country house, but somehow wild turkeys didn't cross my mind. Two weekends ago, I saw this turkey hen amble through the woods in back. It is a hen, isn't it? Hard to tell from the crummy picture, but that's the best one I got.
Last weekend, something similar caught my eye, but this time I had the good sense to grab the binoculars instead of the camera. It was a tom turkey with red head and wattles and that strange beard thing sticking out from its chest. He scuffled through the leaves a while and moved on.

This morning, I heard a beautiful, distinctive bird song and tracked it through the woods to the singer. A wood thrush! It let me look and listen for a long while before it figured out I was following it around, and then flew away. It was back in a short time, but I didn't go chasing it again.

Yesterday, while hunting for wildflowers in the woods, I came across this tiny iridescent spider in the middle of its pollen-spangled web.
We started seeing dragonflies over the weekend. This one posed on the deck railing yesterday afternoon. I'm only just beginning to learn about dragonflies, and this one doesn't look like any of the pictures in my book. Maybe it's a damselfly instead?
Update, 4/25 5:30 pm EDT: Thanks to a comment from Annie in Austin, I think I've ID'd the dragonfly. She sent me here, and I clicked through to here, and said "Hmmm, that top picture looks quite a lot like my photo." My field guide only showed the Common Whitetail adult male, and that's what confused me. To be fair, if I had read the text in the guide instead of just looking at the pictures, I would have learned that the Common Whitetail juvenile male has a different abdomen coloration. And they're even more confusing when they go through puberty. ;-)
Saturday, there were at least five different kinds of butterflies around. We didn't pause in our work to identify them all - some kind of azure, something that looked like a fritillary, the same duskywings we've been seeing for weeks, sulphurs, cabbage whites and....ta da!...the first Tiger Swallowtail.This is a good argument for leaving your dandelions grow, if you ask me.

Labels: birds, butterflies, CeVA, dragonflies, spiders

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Eviction of Phoebe

A few weekends ago, I noticed an Eastern Phoebe checking out our porch ceiling fan at the country house. The weekend after that, a pair of them showed a lot of interest in the front porch, but they didn't seem to want to share it with me. Last weekend, I found their nest on the porch light by the front door. What a snug little thing - stuck to the top of the light with mud and lined with soft moss - just the perfect place to bring up a family. Well....I really didn't want it there (they got mud all over everything - walls, door, floor, doormat) but I think I'm incapable of destroying a bird's nest, so I just told DH about it. He was unhappy (like I thought he would be) and a short time later the nest was gone. To the best of my knowledge there were not any eggs in the nest. I asked DH if there were, and his response was "Would you leave it there if there were?". Translation: "I can't believe you would leave a thing like that on the front porch". I hope they find the perfect nesting spot - away from the house - but from what I read it seems that's their preferred location.

I'm fiddling with Photoshop Elements slideshows. They use Flash 9.0, and I don't know how well they would work for users with dialup connections. And I'm not sure if the additional overhead is worth it just for the special effects. I'd love to have some feedback (good or bad) - just leave a comment.

Still not much in the way of wildflowers at the country place. In the woods there were a few spring beauties, and the ferns are starting to unfurl. We're making a path through the woods with wood chips, and I'd hate to cover up any good plants, so in a way I'm glad I haven't found many. In a field across the road, I found field pansies. I had never seen these before and I thought they were just the cutest things - imagine a Johnny-Jump-Up, but more delicate-looking. How could they be weeds?

Labels: birds, wildflowers

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Last Snow

These are positively the last pictures of snow I'm going to post until next winter. Even if it snows another two feet, which it won't, I will not take a picture.

While I was out photographing the narcissus in the snow, a red-bellied woodpecker started drumming on the neighbors' chimney cap. The robins were back today, and so was the pine warbler. The goldfinches are starting to wear their summer feathers. And it's finally going to warm up outside!

Labels: birds, bulbs, snow

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Spring or Winter?

Every time I declare spring, it snows. I was just thinking of declaring spring after last weekend in the country, so snow is in the forecast.

Last weekend in Central Virginia, the weather was warm enough to open the windows and air out the house. The sound of spring peepers (or something) drifted in on the breeze (more like a gale, actually). I wandered around the woods looking for wildflowers or fiddleheads, but it was still too early. The maple trees are starting to bud out. The birds were singing noticeably more than the previous weekend. Our well-fed suburban birds have been singing for weeks, but I think the rural birds were still just trying to stay alive. Now the bugs are starting to come out and they can think of other activities. I didn't see any deer, but did find their tracks in the mud, however those were nowhere near the recently planted woodies. So far, so good.

Back to those spring peepers for a moment. According to what I've read on the internet, spring peepers are nocturnal. So then, what was I hearing during the daylight? They started about 10:30 in the morning and went until late afternoon. The sound was coming from the brushy side of the stream. I tried to look for the critters, but could see nothing. I found a site with sounds of a dozen frogs and toads, but none of these sound like what I remember. So the identity of the croaking creatures remains to be discovered.

In Northern Virginia, a few more crocus flowers popped open yesterday. I do mean popped open. Sunday I swear there was nothing there - hardly even any leaves; Monday - flowers. And some of the very early narcissus are open. Pictures soon.

A rare bird stopped by this afternoon - a pine warbler. I guess they really aren't all that rare, but this is only the second time I've seen one in the backyard. Not rare at all, but very welcome, a large flock of robins was rummaging through the leaves in the woods late in the afternoon.

Did I mention there's a snow advisory for tomorrow?

Labels: birds, critters, crocus, narcissus, snow

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Nature Quiz

Do you know what plant made these seeds? I don't, but this morning I find they're scattered all over the surface of the now solidly frozen slush/snow/whatever. I confess that I haven't tried very hard to identify them - just thought I'd toss out the question. Maybe they're instantly recognizable by somebody reading this? Or I could just plant some and see what comes up. They're about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, by the way.

The Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow. I always get a charge out of watching the map fill in, but I'm easily entertained. :-)

Labels: birds, seeds

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Tangled Branches: Cultivated

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Updates, a Life Bird, and Potager's Progress

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Inadvertant Nest Box

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Firsts

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Catching Up

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

One Liners

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Where Have All the Sparrows Gone?

Monday, February 11, 2008

Purple Finches and the Other GBBC

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

More Signs of Spring

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Counting Crows

Friday, November 09, 2007

Miscellany and Oddities

Monday, August 20, 2007

Things with Wings

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Summer Hummer

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Rara Avis

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

CeVa Journal: Wildlife

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Eviction of Phoebe

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Last Snow

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Spring or Winter?

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Nature Quiz