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And Now Toad Eggs
March 14, 2025 Yesterday I wrote about Frog and Salamander Eggs. In the picture above are some eggs that are different. They’re the eggs of an American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus). I found them in a small stream running alongside the road further up the mountain. Frog eggs are always in eggmasses. Salamander eggs are sometimes…
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Frogs And Salamanders
March 13, 2025 They have partied and now there are eggmasses in my vernal pool. These two clumps are the eggs of Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus). They contain from 1,000 to 3,000 eggs each. They hatch 9 to 30 days later, in part depending on the temperature of the water. Warmer water encouraging hatching more…
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Here Comes Spring
March 12, 2025 Daffodil (Narcissus). No Daffodils are native to North America. They’re native to southern Europe and North Africa, with the main concentration being in the Western Mediterranean on the Iberian Peninsula. Most species of Daffodil bloom in late winter to spring, but there are five species that march to the beat of their…
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An Orchid At The Table
March 11, 2025 An Orchid (Orchidaceae) greets me as I take a seat at the dinner table. It blooms year after year. Like most houseplants, it’s not a native plant. A kind gesture from a dear friend that I see occasionally at yoga. It came as quite a surprise to me, as I have become…
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A Visit From A Crow
March 10, 2025 The past few days I’ve been hearing many American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) making lots of noise out in the woods. This afternoon one came by to enjoy some of the suet that song birds have been enjoying for a long time. This is the first time I recall a Crow eating the…
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Goldfinches At The Maryland State Flower
March 9, 2025 I’ve been waiting. There is a relatively new planting of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta), the Maryland state flower, on the back hill. I never clean up my gardens until late spring. That leaves the seedheads there all winter long for birds to come and enjoy a tasty treat through no effort by…
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A Native Stink Bug
March 8, 2025 It’s a bit of a pleasure to talk about a native stink bug given how horribly bothersome the non-native Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) is. This photo is the nymph stage of a Green Stink Bug (Chinavia hilare) native to much of North America but one that I seldom see. It…
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Thank You For The Pose Downy!
March 7, 2025 Looking like it is taking a pose at an awards ceremony, a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) sits in a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). It’s waiting for a turn at the suet feeders where it competes with Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus), Tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor), and Chickadees (Poecile). Sometimes I see as many…
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Red Maples In Bloom
March 6, 2025 A great help to pollinators, the Red Maple tree (Acer rubrum) is one of our first native trees to bloom in the spring, or in this case in late winter. And also a great help to meet a neighbor down at the bottom of my mountain. This morning I stopped along the…
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Bigger Than A Hummingbird But Still Mighty Small
March 5, 2025 The Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis). Measures in at 3.1 to 4.7 inches in length. Mighty small and actually the smallest Wren in North America. They’re only here in my part of Virginia in the winter and they normally frequent areas more dense than I have here. It’s wonderful to see one and…