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Carolina Horsenettle
One to watch out for. Carolina Horsenettle (Solanum carolinense), all parts of the plant are poisonous including cherry tomato-looking berries which turn yellow when ripe. Native to southeastern United States but has spread widely.
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Eastern Cottontail
Populating the area around the cabin, a few Eastern Cottontail Rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) provide fun entertainment as they grow from the size of one’s hand to an adult. They love to eat the clover which grows in great abundance and because care is taken not to tempt them, they eat little else. Little else that…
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Common Box Turtle
So many Common Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) shell designs! Each and every one of them different. They fascinate me. But then it’s not just the shell design, it’s the whole turtle that fascinates me. As I’m out roaming I’ll stop if I see a turtle in the middle of the road, to help it get…
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Common Whitetail Dragonfly
I’m constantly learning things as I dig through my books and page through various sites on the internet. One of today’s new things is the word to describe the color quality of the abdomen of a male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia). That word: pruinose, which means frosted in appearance. Makes me think of blueberries which…
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Hooded Warbler
Hooded Warblers (Setophaga citrina) have been delighting me here in the mountains for many years. They spend the breeding season in eastern North America, and the winter in Central America and the West Indies. If you feed the birds during the summer, these birds generally won’t come to your feeders. They spend all their feeding moments gleaning…
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Pickerel Frog
A pond will attract some fun creatures. Even a small man-made pond. Immediately after the pond at my cabin was put in, frogs began arriving. One species of frog that visits is a Pickerel Frog (Lithobates palustris). A word of caution. The pickerel frog is the only poisonous frog native to the United States. You may…
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Great Spangled Fritillary
One of many species of Fritillary that depend on native violets as their host plant, Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele). They’re seen in the central and northern United States and southern Canada sporting a wingspan of about three inches. Many adult butterflies have a very short life. In contrast, adult Great Spangled Fritillaries live from…
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Violets for the Birthday Girl
She’s celebrating her 104th birthday. Absolutely marvelous. She’s part of an amazing family. A family that brings love to everything they do. And she loves Violets. So Violets it will be. There are somewhere between four hundred and five hundred different species of Violets in the genus Viola, and those Violets are scattered all over…
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Red-spotted Purple
Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis). With a wingspan of three to three and a half inches. Looking quite handsome with its iridescent blue with tiny orange spots on the dorsal (top) side of its wings. At this point I have to mention that this butterfly is on Butterfly Bush. BUT this plant is NOT in any…
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In Defense of Poison Ivy
I know, I know. I understand. It grows where I don’t want it. The NERVE. It makes me itch just to look at it and heaven forbid if its oil gets on someone else’s sleeve and that sleeve brushes against me. But Poison Ivy is a native, and native birds love the berries. Afternoon after…