Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tiny turtles, tiny frogs.......

Most of the turtles at the wetlands were in the water today. These were 2 of the normal size ones.
But we also saw a lot of tiny turtles, not more than silver dollar size....

Trying to spot them in the green stuff was a challenge!

The tiny frogs....some greenish, some brownish....were only about a half inch. Here are two with this leaf.
Such cute little things, but very noisy!
A Red-Wing Blackbird female on the rail.

This looks like a web worm of some sort, but it was on the rail by itself.

A nice dragonfly.....White Tail, I think.

Not much in the meadow yet, but clover both this kind and the larger purple kind.

Some very small wild roses or brambles of some sort.

I didn't get a very good photo of these wild flags/iris....couldn't even tell what they were from the distance until I got home. Growing wild along the marsh edge.

Always the Red-Wings making sure we keep moving out of his territory.

Back home, I had a Grackle stop by to eat.

Here is the Wren nest on the top shelf in the garage. They always choose such inconvenient places for both themselves and us. I opened the garage door this morning and the wren went swooping out.....apparently it was in there all night. Our garage actually has several perfect Wren sized holes in the side where knotholes have fallen out or birds have made holes, but I don't think they use them to go in and out.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Oldies I didn't use yet.....(left-overs)

I realized that I didn't take any photos yesterday and went into a panic, but looking back through my files I had a bunch that never got posted for some reason. This is not my yard....I wish mine looked this good! I was delivering some books here and had my camera along, so I took photos of her beautiful columbines. She offered me some...anyone know when it is a good time to dig them up?
Sorry about the hand, but I wanted to lift the flower up and see it.

They really were pretty.
A "Dirty Hairy"!
I think he looks like his feathers are tea stained. I always seem to have at least one downy or hairy that has that brownish cast to the feathers.

"The Star" says 'hello'!.....well actualy, he is busy eating as usual.

"nose to the grind stone"?

I liked this little turtle out in the sea of green.

Some fungi on a log in the water
More fungi
This is one of those plants that "stick" to your clothes, but I don't know it's name....very sticky. The cats come in with the little balls on their fur. (Just found the name "bedstraws" for these)
I see this every year at the wetlands but don't know its name.....maybe a red honeysuckle or some sort? Smaller than any trumpet vines that I know of.

It certainly grows like a honeysuckle.

Black Locust trees.
Well, if it isn't raining tomorrow.....I hope.....I will get out looking for something new.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

Pink and Red peonies
Baby birds from many years

White peony.
Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

A Jacquie Lawson Mother's Day card....

Here is Jacquie Lawson's newest Mother's Day card....enjoy and have a Happy Mother's Day!
http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1863873769590&source=jl999

Flora and Fauna weekly roundup.....

Every year I have this one beautiful white iris. It never seems to spread, but the one plant is very faithful. Very tall, too. I have to stake it. There will be 3-4 blooms before it is done.
It appears to have an intruder

My rhododendrons are blooming and I just love them! I like rhododedrons better than their cousins, the azaleas, because the flowers are more distinct and surrounded by green rather then the mass color of the azaleas. Both are lovely. I decided that I would not be getting any dry photos of them, so you will have to take them with raindrops.
I have two large bushes of them by the front door.

There was a spider web hanging there that morning, and I realized that I have no idea how you get the camera to focus on something so fine! This was the best I could do. Most of the time, it shot right through the web like it wasn't there.

I'm always surprised when I download photos and find some that I don't remember taking! Mike saw this Brown Thrasher in the drive one day while I was doing my computer work and took a few shots.
An interesting perspective :-)
This is one of the younger male Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks. Note the back on it, with lots of brown......
....and compare to the breeding male with his fully dark black and white back.
He was posing rather nicely for me in the dead dogwood tree. Finally brave enough to come close to the house.
He looks puzzled.
A cute little Carolina Wren....haven't seen them much lately, but sure hear them all the time.
Showing off......courting behavior?
After this they both flew into our garage and one of them disappeared on the top shelf between some stuff.....oh, oh......a nest in the garage??
A rather handsome Blue Jay stopped by.
Found a prize among the seeds in the drive.
There has been a lot of bird activity lately and I expect to see a lot of young birds soon. The downys almost always show up with babies for Mother's Day. They have been very active at the suet, so I figure they might be feeding some wherever they nest. I hope so!