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Witch Hazel In Bloom
A spot just up my dirt road. Take a hike to the top of Hightop, an elevation of 3587 feet, and you will see lovely Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blooms aplenty. Each flower with 4 petals resembling yellow coconut flakes. They wait until late October to start their blooming. Much to my delight, adding to…
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At The Yoga Studio
Year round. Three mornings a week. A gift for body and mind. And now in late October an autumn view. What I see as I arrive these days for my yoga classes with my precious teacher, Kumud Vanderveer. Perfection.
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Blueberries At Their Best
Blueberries at their best? Does that mean blueberries in a pie? Or in a bowl topped with vanilla ice cream? Mmmm. Maybe that is the berries themselves at their best. That, for sure, is when the berries are at their best. But what I’m actually speaking of in this blog post is the blueberry bush.…
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Winter Wren
A Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) after a bath. A winter resident. Tiny. Much smaller than a Carolina Wren, weighing in at .3 to .4 ounce. Their favorite foods are insects and arthropods, and eat berries such as Juniper berries during the winter. They’re full of energy as they search through dense underbrush looking for a…
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Few Dogwood Leaves
As the days tick away, the leaves turn more beautiful with each of those ticks. The Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) leaves however, have been turning from emerald to garnet since the end of June and have begun to fall away. Leaving berries, also known as drupes. And those drupes gladden many species of birds, along…
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Year Round Resident
I’ve not had any bird feeders out for a while, with the exception of Hummingbird feeders. But the birdbaths bring the birds. Today’s bird is a year round resident, the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia). They have a diet of grass and weed seeds, insects and invertebrates and fruits and seeds. When I have the feeders…
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Festooned With Crimson
Oh the colors! A speckled ivory trunk of Sycamore decorated by autumn with the showy crimson leaves of Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). A background of gold and green. And more colors to come.
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Swainson’s Thrush
I saw it yesterday. Thought for sure it was a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). The Hermit Thrush is a common resident here during the winter, but there was something wrong. Something not quite right. I did some digging around on the Internet and was able to figure it out. Looking so very much like the…
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Thank You Phoebes
This is an Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) visiting my birdbath today. There are three species of Phoebe that live in North America. The Eastern Phoebe lives in the mainly eastern portion of our continent from the Northwest Territories to Mexico. There is the Say’s Phoebe that lives in the western half of the continent from…
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Ruby-crowned Kinglet Migration
Here for the winter? I hope so. I saw a tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) a couple days ago. Normally there are some that spend the winter here. I’m hoping this one is not just passing through. Their breeding range is far northern North America. They spend their winters in the southern US and the…