Above
Early morning at Big (Gereaux) Lake
Warm weather is finally upon us, so there is lots of growth and movement out there.
We are starting to see these Silvery Blues flitting along our roadsides. Whites (probably Cabbage Whites) often accompany them as they pollinate some of the ephemerals. No photos of the Whites yet.
The brilliant blue indicates a male…
I have never seen a pollinator on a Pale Corydalis. It must have a special apparatus to get into that long tubular blossom. Illinoiswildflowers suggests long-tongued bumblebees. These wildflowers bloom all summer and are easy to grow.
A Yellow Warbler on a Big Lake Ash tree… I am starting to listen to the birdsongs at that site, as an aid to finding them.
This Red-breasted Nuthatch was also flitting around in the ashes at Big Lake. Although I’ve never heard it in the wild it seems to have a very unique call.
This mother goose is keeping an eye on me from its nest near Raby’s Camp Road on Hwy 529.
American Redstart in my yard. I will have to train my ears to detect the difference in its song with the Yellow Warbler.
I debated including this Trillium but decided to do so because it is one of the few times, I’ve seen a beetle in this flower. This is the closest I could come to ID’ing it, but it is definitely not a longhorn!
The pincherries (Prunus pennsylvanica) are just starting to bloom now. Every year they remind me of “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now ….” Unlike A.E. Housman it took me a lot more than 20 years to fully appreciate spring cherry blossoms. Alas, methinks I’ll not get another 50 to appreciate them as I am well past my allotted three score and ten now….
Ontario’s flower in side-light …
One of my favourite springtime flowers:
No, not a honeysuckle (Lonicera) but an Aqualegia. In fact, Canucks should know it as Aqualegia canadensis….
This little microclimate is encouraging the early blooming of wild black currant. That currant makes a good jelly and apparently, good wine. I used to have some on my property but quickly removed it when I saw some white pine blister rust in the neighbourhood. Alas, too late. I lost a nice Pinus strobus to the disease.
I saw this beautiful cedar strip sailboat at Bayfield Inlet. It was named Swallows & Amazons and sported a nicely carved tiller and retractable keel in a casing. Very nicely finished.
I often stop to marvel at this rock face about a km east of Bayfield Inlet on 529A.
Sometimes the light is right to reveal the tortured history of this spot.
This male Red-winged Blackbird is too busy trying to impress the ladies to pay any attention to local geology. Listen to the variety of his calls…
Mama and Papa Geese are taking the quints for an outing on Byng Inlet, on Riverside Dr….
And these stigma are still there as the leaves burst forth!
Yes, one of my favorite bud-blossoms, Corylus cornuta
One has to be alert in August to beat the mammals and birds to the harvest!!!
I think that this is a moth of some sort. HELP!
Yesterday I got another installment in a blog that I just started following.
I couldn’t have said it any better:
May 26, 2018 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions
- Every now and then wonder if readers of this blog think that they have to go deep into a forest or climb hills to see the things that I see, so I make a point of doing posts from places like dowtown Keene, or my own yard, or the local college. I do this to show that nature is truly everywhere, even in the heart of a city, so all you really need to do to find it is go outside. This time I’ve chosen roadsides, because just about anyone can walk along a road. It doesn’t have to be a wooded road like the one in the photo. I needed a shot of a road for this post and that one happened to be the most photogenic, but it could be any road anywhere.
Brtthome's Blog 