Gray Catbird Seen Yesterday

When you by chance might hear a slight mewing in the woods, do youknow that that sound is not necessarily made by a cat? Yes, there is a bird that meows! It is the Catbird!  And I saw a  Gray Catbird yesterday!  I usually see one each year in about the same location but yesterday's sighting seemed to be a bit early to me.  Catbird's like to nest in wild rose bushes.  That is how I first became accustomed to seeing them.  We have an old wild rose bush in Bird Alley and one year a Catbird pair built a nest in our rosebush. Our Rose bush used to be huge but we have since pruned it back.  It was so out of control and rambling. There is no sign of wild rose blossoms in Bird Alley yet and there won't be for a while.  That is why I say that the Catbird I saw yesterday seemed to be an early sighting.

The Catbird is a handsome slate gray bird with a black cap.  This photo is of the Catbird I saw yesterday.

Waning full moon in the Morning Sky

I missed the full moon on the 25th, but it was  large and beautiful and waning

in the sky this morning, easily seen and photographed from my driveway.

Brightly Coloured Goldfinch

It was with pleasure that I took this photo of a brightly coloured Goldfinch in Bird Alley yesterday afternoon, for it has seemed with the recent duration of rainy , dark days that all beauty and bright colour had left.  We have had very few bird visitors recently, thus this bright goldfinch attracted me.

I was assuming this was a male Goldfinch until I saw my next Goldfinch photo which had a full black cap! , and then I realized that in  my first photo pictured , although the Goldfinch had a brightly coloured lemon yellow body , it did not have a black cap!

Then looking carefully and by cropping I got a closer look at the first Goldfinch picture, and yes, I  

could see the beginnings of black starting to show on the bird's head.  So, yes I am calling it a male, but is it a mature male just having undergone a spring molt? or is it a young male just coming into its own by growing in its distinctive black cap?
Its not a big problem or an issue to me, just a reminder to me to look look carefully at what I am seeing before I jump to identification conclusions.
Nature has so much beauty to observe, just enjoy its beauty by taking that second look.
Have a great sunny, warm day everyone as such is forecasted today!!

Recent Rain Forest Weather!

There is nothing wrong with my camera, but its just that this is what our weather has been looking like the past few days. We are expecting sunshine this afternoon!!!!!!!  Yea for that little bit of weather optimisim!

Rain Filled River

It has been raining for days and it has turned our river into a taging, frothy picturesque scene

I went down  to the river with my camera and set my shutter at a slower speed and I am very pleased with the results of the action in the river by using a slower shutter speed at 1/4 second

 

Mother Natures 'Artistry

 

Johnny Jump Up

Beautiful Pansies, a beautiful work of art!

Star Flower in Bloom

A Butterfly!

Yesterday I took my first butterfly photo of the spring!  It was a Clouded Sulphur and just a few seconds from taking the picture we saw a Cabbage White Butterfly. Buttetrflies are such beautiful gracious creatures! It was very close to home so I shall check out that area again very carefully today

  a Clouded Sulphur butterfly

Rhodora wildflower

I had learned something new a few  springs ago!  I learned the proper name  ( Rhodora) of these beautiful, rosy, purplish flowers. I remember watching for these flowers every year as a child to come into bloom. My birthday is in June and I always felt that these beautiful flowers made the occasion a bit  more special for me. I had always known them as June flowers.I think that's what everyone around here called them. A couple of years ago I searched for their name, finding nothing named June flowers. So now, its almost June and look what I found this morning, my old misnamed June flowers. What a lovely delight when I came across them! How wonderful to find my old floral seasonal friends again, It is that sort of experience that makes me think of the 'loyalty of nature.. During March, 2010 I had bought a new book titled: Wildflowers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island by Mary Primrose and Marian Munro, published by:Formac Publishing Company Limited, Halifax. At that time my husband was browsing through the book when he came upon my previously misnamed June Flowers., and thus we discovered.

 

Rhododendron canadense) It is a wiry shrub found in roadside ditches, swamps and bogs, growing to be about a meter or more high. The* Rhodora plant is closely related to ornamental Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

these rosy purplish blossoms arecalled Rhodora.

A New Wildflower Find For Me; Bluets!

 

I love wildflowers and it is always exciting and intriguing when I find one that I do not know; as was the case yesterday. Its always an adventure to discover something new!!!!We have recently spent a few days at Quispamsis and 

 

       we  had noticed many clumps of small white flowers on several lawns there.  

I took a few pictures and so I searched in a few wildflower books to find their identify as soon as I had returned home.  I found the flower in  a book titled:Wildflowers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This is a  lovely book  on wildflowers by Mary Primrose and Marian Munro .
I found pictures of and a description of Bluets on page 48,

   Bluets: 

So you see Tess, that is the name of those  pretty little flowers we  had found on our way home from the park yesterday! They are Bluets!
I have discovered that bluets a.k.a are also known as Innonce or Quaker Ladies1  who knew?

A Flowering Almond in the Rain.

Six years ago we bought this flowering almond tree as a gift to our daughter in honour of the birth of her daughter. We loved its beauty and the pink colour which  was significant to the occasion, the birth of our first granddaughter. When I took these photos yesterday ,the blooms were somewhat diminished in their beauty by the falling rain.  However I feel the raindrops added a dimension of beauty to the blooms which we had not enjoyed previously.  There are still many unopened buds on the tree and the promise of its spectacular blossoming yet to come is still being held within. May the next few days be sunny as they coax the beauty of the blooms  and may the day of our beautiful granddaughter's 6th. birthday coincide with the full blossoming of the beauty of this flowering almond tree.

 below;taken this afternoon after the petals have dried out a bit.