Juvenile Cardinal

 How exciting!  Today we have a juvenile cardinal visiting in Bird Alley.  This is the first ever sighting of a juvenile cardinal!  I take this visit to mean that the adult pair of Cardinals we had  seen frequently in Bird Alley over the winter was a breeding pair!

The photo above shows highlighted reds due to photo editing.  The first photo showing more sudued colours is closer to the cokours on the bird that we had actually seen.

Beautiful sunset of last evening

 Red, your colour was vibrant!!!!  spreading your beauty across the evening sky!

 Reflections: above on my car  window and below on the window in my door.

And today we have rain forecast for all day long.!

Mystery insect or bee?

Can anyone identify this insect for me?  I had found two dead ones on my doorstep in early July.
I hope there are no more as anything that has the potential to sting makes me uneasy, not knowing what it is or its source.
I would appreciate any comments from anyone who has experience with this species, what ever it may be.
TRhank you.

Black Swallowtail

This beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly visited my garden yesterday.  It feasted primarily on a beautiful pink Bee Balm and it also tasted clover. .  It is so beautiful and colourful!  I do hope it returns to my garden today.

We have two Pink Coneflowers in bloom and they has been visited by a medium sized orange fritillary and other than yellow Tiger Swallowtails earlier in the summer that is about the total of butterfly sightings in my garden.  I continue to look daily in a nearby milkweed patch looking for Monarchs, but there does not seem to be any around as yet,
Have a good day everyone
note: I had initially identified this butterfly as a Spicebush Swallowtail, but have since reevaluated my id and now call it a Black Swallowtail: thus my erronerous  naming title .

A young fawn

I saw this young fawn with an adult deer yesterday morning under the apple trees of an orchard. Their presence will not be appreciated there by the owner.

     a spotted beauty

 

This young deer somehow was able to get through the fencing there.

SNAKE

While my husband was rebuilding the bricks around our outdioor fireplace today he found this little snake neatly coiled underneath a brick.
I can't identify it, but it is rather prettily marked I think.

Just a little nudge by my husband's digging tool and it slithered away into the nearby grass.

Feeding Time in Bird Alley

       "FEED ME!!!!!"

   This is the time of year when we often see hungry baby birds appear in Bird Alley. The adult parenting bird often can be seen feeding her hungry young.  Above can be seen a young Purple Finch demanding to be be fed by the adult bird beside it.

   And in this case the adult female Purple Finch has leaned in to share a bit of bird seed with the hungry fledgling.

            Above the young Downy Woodpecker appears to be very insistent with its open beak demanding food.

   And in response to its demands, the adult male Downy Woodpecker deposits some bird seed into the open beak of the young woodpecker.

Common Yellowthroat Warbler

While walking around the perimeter of our back yard a few evenings ago I noticed a little bird that seemed to be following me.  It flew from fence post to fence post and now and then flew onto a tree branch.    It was a favourite little warbler species that I haven't seen much of this summer. You might be wondering from the picture?  " Who ( What) is that masked bird?  that was accompanying me on my walk.

My husband has nicknamed this little masked bird as "The Lone Ranger Bird".  Remember themasked man? the Lone Ranger from those long ago childhood days in the 40's or so."  Hi ho Silver and away!" Silver was the Lone Ranger's faithful stead, his white horse.Since that evening  when I go outdoors in my yard on an early evening I do some pishing" and this little faithful Lone Ranger Bird follows me along on my walk.  This little masked bird is actually  a male Common Yellowthroat Warbler.

Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder

June is a month full of celebrations for my husband and I.  Father's Day, Our wedding anniversary and we both celebrate birthdays in June.  My daughter and grandchildren know how much we enjoy feeding the birds and how annoying it can be to us when Squirrels come along and empty the feeders and eat all the bird food.
They thoughtfully and wisely chose a gift that would be useful and much appreciated by us.  They chose to give us a squirrel proof bird feeder!  But their anxious concern was, Will it really work so the squirrels cannot get into the bird  food?

YES IT WORKS AND I HAVE THE PROOF IN PICTURES TAKEN TODAY!!!!
What a wonderful gift this is.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH, RIEL, SHANE, ELI and TESS!!!   WE LOVE OUR NEW SQUIRREL PROOF BIRD FEEDER.

In the first picture you can see a Gray Squirrel on the roof of the bird feeder.

The second picture  above shows the squirrel looking in checking to see if there is food in the feeder and yes, there is, It will  be able see lots of sunflower seeds inside! At the bottom of the bird feeder you can see an opening; that is where the birds feed from. Also notice there are two red bars at the bottom of the feeder. If any weight is put on the bottom bars then the feeder will close as the opening will be covered by a red covering.  Watch what happened next!!!!!

 The squirrel has its paw on the bottom bar and that caused the cover to come down over the opening and has closed the feeder!

 The covering stays in place as long as the squirrel's paw rests on the bottom bar! 

No matter how it squirms around  or what position it takes, as long as its paw is holding the bar down it cannot reach the food!!!

The Squirrel finally gives up and jumps down from the bird feeder!
As the squirrel removes its paw the feeder opening is uncovered  again, and the bird feeder is available for the birds to feed there again. What a great gift family!!!  It works! We love it, but I don't think the squirrel does!

Wood Turtle Crossing the Road

 It seems to be my destiny lately to see a lot of turtles.  Usually it is Snapping Turtles but this morning I encountered a Wood Turtle crossing the Mast Road at Three Tree Creek!

 The legs and neck casing of the Wood turtle is patterned with red, rather pretty I think!

 The shell of the Wood turtle is patterned in whorled ridges and splashes of yellow!

A slight view of the underneath of this turtle can be seen in this sideways view above.

Yellow Underwing Moth

I found this beautiful moth on the sidewalk outside ofd my home this morning.  I think the folded drape of its yellow underwing is so beautiful and delicate looking.  A.K.A.. Noctua Pronuba, originally an European moth which has made its way across North America now

Also found this morning a Northern Crescent butterfly

A Snapping Turtle Crossing the Road

Why did the Snapping Turtle cross the road?  At this time of year there are lots of snapping turtle sightings, often they are seen on roads or highways, for they have places to go.  A Snapping Turtle will return to its hatching site to lay its eggs and its surprising the determination they have  and their directional sense!  Its almost as if they have a built in GPS.
The turtle we saw yesterday was   very small.  It was perhaps the smallest snapping turtle I have ever seen.  Its shell length would have been about 7-8 inches in length.

There was a lot of traffic on the highway ( hwy #101) and we were very concerned that it might be hit by a car, so we considered how to get it out of harm's way.  NEVER, NEVER. NEVER, ever pick up a snapping turtle!  It has a strong dangerous, strong mouth and as its name suggests, it is a snapper, and it could snap your fingers right off!

My husband found a broken branch nearby and by pushing the branch at the turtle, the turtle was gently urged towards the ditch on the other side of the road which appeared to be the destination of the turtle.

The turtle was not too happy with this urging and repeatedly snapped at the branch pushing it.
But 'all is well that ends well' and once it was safely on the other side of the road, which was the direction it was headed to, it cooperatively hurried down into the ditch area.

Stay safe turtle!!  Stay off highways!

The Rhythms of Nature: Snapping Turtles Egg Laying

I sometimes think I am so fortunate to be able to predict or know when to look for special happenings in nature.  For example: ever since we came across a Snapping Turtle laying eggs in June, 2000 , we have observed and looked for and found the same happening reoccur each year in mid to late June.  The same is happening again this year.
I had been searching for the past  few weeks  and on Thursday of this week, my searchings were rewarded for I found a Snapping Turtle in the river.  From my past experiences and observations this sighting indicated to me that the turtle would come out of the river and climb the tall embankments near the river there, and search out its old nest site , and dig a hole and lay its eggs there.

But first these  pictures before the  rest of the story is told.If you look carefully you can see in turtle in the river near the shore in the two photos below and the ones above..

 

                            Only the head of the turtle was above water.

This photo above shows the turtle positioning itself to climb out of the river.

From experience of years past This spot of sand and gravel will be the turtles destination. This is where Snapping Turtles lay their eggs each year.  I doubt that this year will be any different. This location is quite a distance from the river.  to reach it the turtle must climb a big embankment and struggle through the hillside venation to reach it.

Later on that same day, in the afternoon I found the turtle had achieved its long climb up the embankment,Here it is, looking all tuckered out!
I didn't see the turtle  again but the next morning I found that the sand and gravel in the old nest site had been visited and disturbed!  The disturbed nest site suggested to me that the snapping turtle had probably laid her eggs there and then sometime during the night returned to the river.
I shall occassionally check on this nest site  over the summer with hopes that the eggs are not dug up by any predators and shall hope I catch the moment of hatching in three months time!

Above the disturbed sand ( soil) at the nest site the next morning The turtle probably laid her eggs there.