Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, February 15, 2010
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
...is a bust. For the visuals, see the previous post.
No flowers here. Even the indoor orchids are still just buds. I think I should go buy another one just to have something blooming.
This may be a record at Tangled Branches - longest period of time with no flowers.
But there are some hopeful signs. The snow is melting, just not very fast. I heard a cardinal singing this morning. While scanning the trees for birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count, I noticed the maple buds seem just a little more plump.
Welp, since there's nothing much to look at here, this might a be good time to have another cup of tea and start scanning the list of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts for flowers elsewhere.
Labels: birds, in bloom, weather
Friday, January 15, 2010
GBBD
Garden Bloggers' Bud Day?
'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' narcissus will be blooming soon.
'Jelena' witch hazel thinks it's still too cold.
Garden Bloggers' Bug Day?
Some type of stink bug? Found crawling on the floor this afternoon.
Garden Bloggers' Bird Day?
My little chickadee.
Nuthatch with prized sunflower seed.
Shy cardinal.
Garden Bloggers' Blue Day?
Sweetgum seed balls against the deep blue sky.
How could I be blue with a gorgeous sky, plenty of twittering birds, and today's spring-like temperatures? No blooms for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, that's how! But soon there will be flowers. Maybe even for February's GBBD. Stay tuned.
Some flowers from previous Januarys:
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Big Bird
While tethered to the computer slaving away at end-of-the-year bookkeeping, I heard the unhappy sound of a bird hitting the patio door. Must have been a big one, I thought.
Bigger than I imagined. When I first laid eyes on this, my brain couldn't reconcile the songbird I expected to see with the large brown creature I actually saw.
I didn't want to disturb it while it was still stunned, but I wanted a photo. And I was troubled by the sight of its extended wing and wondering how to contact a wildlife rehabilitator. I got close enough to the door to take a couple of good pictures and then...
Oh no, it's headed right for the door again.
It corrected its mistake at the last minute and headed for the trees instead. I didn't see where it went, but felt relieved that it could fly.
I think it's a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk, but I'm no expert on big birds. Anybody else have an opinion?
Labels: birds
Monday, July 27, 2009
Hummingbird at Work
My best photo of a hummingbird. It was just a lucky shot. I was in the garden with the camera when I heard the telltale hum as it zipped past me on its way to the flowers. I thought I was too far away and that the autofocus wouldn't work and that the bird would fly away when it saw the camera and ... well sometimes you get lucky.
Labels: birds, hummingbirds
Monday, June 08, 2009
Swallows and Swallowtails
Is this a Barn Swallow? I think so, but would like to be sure. If I'm correct, the identifying field marks are the orangish throat and belly and the long, forked tail. I've never seen one before, at least not one that I got a good look at, and even here I wouldn't have had a good look without the camera.
A dark Tiger Swallowtail was feasting on the 'Munstead' lavender in the kitchen garden, and while they're nectaring they're much easier to photograph. So I got the camera with the lens I use for closeups and started stalking the butterfly for a good shot. I was soon distracted by a dark bird soaring, swooping and diving over the garden and the meadow beyond.
Hey, it's some kind of swallow. I should take a photo.
Yeah, but this is the wrong lens. You won't get anything worthwhile.
But if I don't try, I won't have anything.
So I switched the camera to Sports Mode and tried first to just catch the bird in the frame and then to pan with the bird as best I could. It was FAST. I got a lot of blurry shots and a few where you could tell there was a bird in the photo. And from those photos, I can see there is a long, forked tail and an orangish underside. Virginia Bird Watching says "the barn swallow is the only American swallow that has a true "swallow tail", with an elongated outer pair of tail feathers."
Which, of course, is where our "swallow tail" butterflies got their name.
Labels: birds, butterflies
Friday, May 29, 2009
Things I Never Saw Before
Lately, I've been thinking this blog might be getting a bit stale. You know... repetitive, undifferentiated ........ boring.
Then, out of nowhere, nature conspires to shake me out of my doldrums. I was walking toward the vegetable garden with tools in my hands when I saw something not quite right. There seemed to be a lump of dirt...moving. Gee, that looks like a big turtle. Back I ran to the house to drop the garden tools and pick up the camera. It is a big turtle. I would guess the shell was 10 to 12 inches long.
Apparently an Eastern Snapping Turtle. That's the closest match I could find on the Turtles of Virginia page at the Virginia Herpetological Society website. I had never seen one before and was surprised because I assumed they were exclusively pond dwellers. Last I saw it, it was headed for our tiny little stream.
The next day I heard, then saw an Eastern Meadowlark.
A beautifully patterned bird, with a pretty (loud) song. And I had never seen one before.
Earlier, I found this moth with an odd bat-faced look.
Moth Update, June 5: It's been raining steadily since I got up this morning, so I had time to try to identify the moth today. I think it's a Harnessed Tiger Moth (Apantesis phalerata). There are several species of Tiger Moths, but the black spots which appear to be eyes (and are not) are a distinguishing mark of Apantesis phalerata.
And watched a Tufted Titmouse extracting larval bald-faced hornets from this nest.
Then while out photographing some of the meadow wildflowers (next post!), I found a new-to-me butterfly: the Carolina Satyr.
So that's five things I never saw before that magically materialized before my eyes in just a few days last weekend. Got to get back outside and keep looking...need new material for the blog.
Labels: birds, butterflies, critters, moths, turtles
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Wildlife Update: the Phoebe Nest
You may remember my April battles with a pair of Eastern Phoebes determined to build a nest on our front porch. I won those battles, but they won the war.
They renewed their efforts just around the corner from their first choice of site. The nest is on the gable vent of our house where I can't readily get at it. Lately the proud parents have been very busy catching flying insects to feed their little family. I was sure I saw at least two tiny heads in that nest, but the photo only shows one and that one isn't all that easy to see except for the open beak. I hope they fledge successfully and grow up and move out. I'd love to have them stay in the neighborhood, just not on our house.
Labels: birds
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Things You Can't Ignore
I had great fun with the camera yesterday. So much is happening now in the garden, woods and fields. When I sat down to edit and post the photos I was at a loss as to how to organize and present them. I decided to invent categories to contain seemingly unrelated things. Let's start with things you can't ignore.
Big birds, for example.
If Pileated Woodpeckers weren't obvious enough just by their size... 
...it's hard to miss the bright red crest.
And when they vocalize, you really cannot ignore them. We see them fairly often in the woods at Tangled Branches South, but they're quite wary of people and it's not easy to get close enough for a good photo.
Red.
Nature doesn't often provide it in large portions, but sprinkles red here and there when she wants you to pay attention. What could she mean by this?
Well OK, I planted these, so the setting isn't completely natural, but this tulip isn't a hybrid. Tulipa linifolia is so brilliant and satiny that it almost looks artificial. The flowers are quite large when they're open all the way - 2 inches in diameter at least.
I think of elegance when I think of ballerinas. Although Tulip 'Ballerina' does have an elegant form... 
...the color is the first thing you notice.
Next post: Subtle Things
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Spring...
...is in full swing.
Daffodils
Migrating birds. Colorful birds.
Rabbits. %&#$!!!
Labels: birds, narcissus, rabbits, seasons
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Eviction of Phoebe: 2009 Edition
Our story begins in 2007 when Eastern Phoebes chose our porch light as the perfect place to raise a family. Luckily there were no eggs when we found the nest; the spouse cleaned it off the porch light and we left the porch ceiling fan running, thinking they wouldn't like the constant motion. For whatever reason, they didn't return that year.
Last spring, we turned the porch ceiling fan on before the Phoebes started nesting and they stayed away.
However. A couple of weekends ago, they started to build on the porch light again. Again, the spouse cleaned it off. Again, we turned the ceiling fan on. But this time they came back. I cleared the nest away. They came back. I cleared the nest away. They came back. I cleared the nest away. Clearly the ceiling fan ploy was no longer working. What to do? I had some plastic netting that we used as deer protection on the tomato plants, so I cut a piece of it and wrapped it around the porch light.
You can see a bit of moss stuck in the netting. It looks like they came back with some building materials and were surprised by the barrier.
But they really really like our porch. Opposite the porch light, is a post with a tiny (about 1 inch) ledge on top.
I don't see how this can work, but apparently they do.
I've now cleaned this off 3 or 4 times in the last two days. This afternoon I put a radio on the porch and left it turned on while I was out in the garden. It looked like the mud was drying and they hadn't been back, but then shortly after 7 PM (during the Latino programming on WTJU) they were working on the nest again.
One way I could keep them from coming back is to stand by the side of the porch with a camera waiting for a good shot. They refused to come by when I was outside and ready with the camera, but they didn't object to me watching them through the window just as long as I was inside. That's why the picture above is a bit fuzzy - it was taken through the window and window screen.
So....tomorrow you can find me on the front porch trying to rig up another barrier to their current building site.
Labels: birds
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Cedar Waxwings and Holly Berries
When birds invade.
Cedar Waxings, Robins, and Grackles descended Tuesday afternoon to eat the holly berries from the little tree in front of the house. By Wednesday morning, every berry was gone from that tree.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Great Backyard Bird Count
There's still time to count and report your backyard birds to the Great Backyard Bird Count, if you haven't yet. Most of today's birds were the usual suspects (like the White-breasted Nuthatch above), but a few Pine Siskins are still here, and a Yellow-rumped Warbler was lurking nearby.
Not a great photo, but good enough to prove I didn't make it up.
Friday, January 02, 2009
New Year, New Birds
I finally got my Pine Siskins. Everybody else has been seeing them for weeks now, and I had never seen one ever. I filled the feeders at Tangled Branches South yesterday after a two week absence and had customers within an hour or two. If there were Siskins there yesterday I didn't see them, but this morning I looked out at the usual Goldfinches and ... hey, those aren't Goldfinches.
At a casual glance out the window the Siskins look a lot like Goldfinches. But looking more closely, you first notice the streaks, then the yellow in the wings, and if you're very observant, the sharp pointy beak. But they park themselves on the feeder and chow down just like their Goldfinch cousins.
You may notice that the feeder is the same in both photos but the food in the tube is different. That's because they emptied the feeder early in the day, which had been filled with a mix of "finch food" and Niger seed. They emptied the feeder, but they didn't eat the "finch food" - just tossed it out on the ground (where the juncos will happily eat it). So I refilled with Niger seed only.
If they stay around, I'm going to need a bigger feeder...like this one (third photo, scroll down).
And while I was on the way out to try for a photo of the Siskins, this Eastern Bluebird stopped by to see what I was doing. He wouldn't turn around to show the pretty blue side until he flew away.
Labels: birds
Monday, December 15, 2008
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
Nothing to see here; move along. Well, no flowers anyway. It was such an absurdly warm day today I thought some of the more gullible early spring flowers might be open, but no luck. I checked the ones I know to be easily fooled by a few warm days - rosemary and one certain violet - and found rosemary flower buds, but no flowers.
There was one last place to look though - the holly tree outside the bedroom window. Tree Guy pruned it into suburban-standard shape in late summer, and that oftentimes makes it throw off a few more flowers. I knew it was blooming a few weeks ago. So I drew back the curtains, and...
again, flower buds, but no flowers.
Oh but look, the sapsucker has been here again recently. There are fresh wells chiseled out of the bark.
This same holly tree was almost girdled by sapsuckers two or three years ago, but the holes callused over and the tree went right on growing as if nothing happened. I wouldn't be heartbroken if they did eventually kill that tree - it's way too big for where it's planted. The builders planted them at the corners of just about every house in our neighborhood.
The builders didn't plant this, however. The birds did.
Many years ago, this was a chance seedling at the edge of the woods in back of the house. I just let it grow, and have been rewarded with loads of gorgeous berries. Usually the birds have picked it clean by now, but this year they're leaving me some Christmas decorations.
Now I'm off to check the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post at May Dreams Gardens. I'll surely find some flowers in bloom there.
Labels: birds, holly, in bloom
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Fructivory in Dryocopus pileatus
Sounds like the title of a very dry scientific paper.
I didn't know that Pileated Woodpeckers like dogwood berries.
Labels: birds
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Quite a Spectacle
Last evening we went to see one of Nature's greatest shows. Richmond has been a-twitter (sorry) with Purple Martins in the last few weeks. After reading several enthusiastic posts on the VA-Bird email list, I talked the spouse into going to see the Purple Martin Premigratory Roost near the 17th Street Market. More about premigratory roosts later, but let's just talk now about what we saw. I took over 80 photos, but not many of them were usable. This nightly event takes place around sunset and the low light levels made for difficult handheld photography. The edited selection here just gives some sense of the size and motion. All are clickable to larger sizes.
Small groups of birds began to appear high in the sky shortly before 8 PM.
The numbers increase, but still very high in the sky.
They're so high in the sky, the appearance is more of a swarm of insects than a flock of birds.
More and more birds gather.
At some humanly imperceptible signal, they begin to descend, looking at times like black snow falling from the sky and at other times swirling like a bird tornado (I only wish I had gotten a photo of that). Notice the tiny black specks of birds still high in the sky.
Another unknown signal, and they start to stream for the trees. Not all at once, but in several waves.
A group of people gathered to watch in an open space between two buildings and across the street from the Callery pears where the birds roost.
This is directly underneath a flight path. It's as if the trees have become giant bird vacuum cleaners, pulling a stream of birds into them.
And then it's over, except for the din of several thousand birds discussing the day's events and deciding on sleeping arrangements for the night.
I don't know much about Purple Martins, but others do. What would we do without the internet?
- Richmond Audubon Society's background info on the 17th St. roost
- Project Martin Roost: info about roosts in general
- Project Martin Roost: Richmond roost
Labels: birds
