Tag Archives: Choke Cherry

20170607 Choke cherry, vireo, pearl crescent, puddling swallowtails, orange hawkweed, pussytoes, tamarack, lily of the valley, sandcherry, blueberry, blue-eyed grass

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Choke cherry, vireo, pearl crescent, puddling swallowtails, orange hawkweed, pussytoes, tamarack, lily of the valley, sandcherry, blueberry, blue-eyed grass

“Loveliest of trees, the cherry now,

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

…..”

When I first saw this flower I thought it was a goatsbeard.  Now, I don’t think so.  We’ll have to watch it on the Old Still Road to see its progress.

This unknown birdie on the Old Still River Road might be a red eyed vireo.  It sang then flitted.

I suspect that this sparrow is bringing a protein lunch to a nearby nest, well hidden in the low thicket.  I was lucky to get a focus on the birdie!

Pearl Crescent in a driveway on Old Still River Road …

Ah!  Thanks for the profile:

In same driveway, three Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (canadensis) are either puddling or mating.

First appearance of Orange Hawkweed.  In spite of its red/orange colour, to which bees are blind, I still see lots of pollinators coming for a visit.  Pilosella aurantiaca (fox-and-cubs, orange hawkweed, tawny hawkweed, devil’s paintbrush, grim-the-collier)

Pussytoes ( Antennaria ) are progressing.   I hope to spot “antennae” sprouting soon.

Hmmm.  I don’t have this one identified yet.  Help!!

Edit:   It looks like a Harvester.

Tamarack cones are maturing … soon to turn brown.  Some pollen pods are still visible and presumably active.

The shadow caught my eye, giving a nice 3D effect…

I am pretty well convinced that this is a sandcherry (In spite of the purple stamens).

Nice warm weather but no pollinators, yet.

Nice patch of blue-eyed grass in the ditch in front of Steve’s house:

An explanation for those Bare Trees filled with Vultures – Western Movie Style.

 

20170602 Choke cherries, Yellow pond lily, ambush spider, painted turtle, bunchberry, corydalis, geranium, Skerryvore, Landscapes.

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Choke cherries, Yellow pond lily, ambush spider, painted turtle, bunchberry, corydalis, geranium, Skerryvore, Landscapes.

Choke Cherries, blooming later than Pin Cherries, but earlier than Black Cherries…

Yellow Pond Lily with visitor …

Roadside flowers with ambush spider awaiting some nourishment …

Very elegant message on the sign at the entrance to the town of Skerryvore.

This painted turtle appreciates the calm traffic but seems otherwise unimpressed…

Cornus canadensis, awaiting the results of the June 30th vote in Canada!

Light on this Capnoides sempervirens, the harlequin corydalis, rock harlequin, pale corydalis or pink corydalis, shows a good view of the seedpods.   Soon they will pop with any touch, flinging their seed a metre or so away to find a crevice in the rocks, where they are commonly found.

And as the above Capnoides mature the Geraniums start their blossom period.  Geranium maculatum (wild geranium, spotted geranium, or wood geranium)

These Wild Geraniums are related to the Pelargoniums, (aka “Geraniums”) the source of much enjoyment by gardeners:

I also used the FZ 1000 to capture the very bright sunlight (3 weeks away from Solstice) shining through Continental Arctic air, illuminating spring colours of the landscape —- giving very bright, high contrast scenes.   Here are a few …

Oft-photographed woodpecked White Pine on Hwy 529.

The different forms of leaf chlorophyll are absorbing different wavelengths (colours) of sunlight, leaving the unabsorbed light to reflect to our eyes.  The forms of chlorophyll vary from plant to plant and seasonally, hence the spring and fall “turning of the leaves”.  More detail here.

A pair of blackbirds are leaving their perches on top of those snags.

Worth stopping to enjoy?

The angles leading to the disappearing  line of snags made me stop and look and think about perspective.    But I didn’t get as far into the subject as this article does!

The correlation of the catspaws and the upturned pine branches stopped me here … as the little cut in the rock pulled my eyes out into the “moose pasture”.

This little creek flows west from under Hwy 529, usually reflecting something, sometimes sunset clouds.

I am reminded of my first flight instructor who told me.  “Don’t look at the sky, look into the sky.”

Same thing with making pictures by looking through a camera’s viewfinder, looking into the scene.

End of today’s lesson!  (Thank goodness, eh?)

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20150616 Some more spring blossoms

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We wandered around a bit yesterday to see the progress of spring flowers.

Hackmatack  cones are progressing …

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This showes why these geraniums are called cranesbills.

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Nice goatsbeard before it goes into seed mode…. like a big dandelion.

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Good example of the sterile attractor blossoms surrounding the fertile blooms on this V. trilobum

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Moose Maple, Mountain Maple, Acer spicatum an uncommon maple around here.

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Pin Cherry, Prunus pensylvanica

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Black Cherry (P. serotina) or a Choke Cherry (P. virginiana) .  One of these days I’ll get a side by side comparison.

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There is a huge variety of these bee/wasp look-alikes out there, pollinating wildflowers.   I wonder if they are affected by neonic0tinoids.

I suspect, but don’t know, that the arachnids are unaffected.

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On of the beautiful Iris in front of D and A’s place.

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One of the Lupins at my former place.  There are some that have turned into this gangly variety.

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B and L’s  fragrant walkway of thyme.

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Very curious painteds, stretching out in the warm sun.

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Canada anemone, crowfoot has more sharply cut leaves compared to the smaller Wood anemone.

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Saw a big black bear moving off of the roadway at the Mag Reserve, probably going between the Mag townsite and the Britt/Byng Inlet Landfill site.  And, again, a single Sandhill was walking between Big Lake and the pond across the Highway.  I suspect a nest nearby.  Still lots of nesting turtles.  Pickerel are starting to disperse but still some nice fish being caught in “The River”.  M.D. got a 9 lb – 3 oz pickerel last weekend up by the railway bridge.