To all the birds I could not name….I saw you out there, in your winter plumage and bird glory and you made my day!
Wild & Wonderful Weeds: Tickseed
Fall in the Piedmont of NC is a rollercoaster of heat waves and stunning fall weather. It’s the slow transition from green to auburn, crimson and gold. It’s the last bloom for flowers before winter settles in on us. It’s hard to drive around town and not admire the resilient tickseed wildflowers in full fall bloom this October.
Owling in Suburbia
The Fruits of Their Labor
A Great Migration
It’s a wonder to see how pleasantly symbiotic the whole relationship is. The milkweed relinquishes its leaves while maintaining life sustaining energy in its deep taproot and regrows. The caterpillar receives its nourishment, including the bitter toxin from the plant that provides a layer of protection from predators, even as an adult. Pollinators will be by eventually to pollinate the flowers which will create pods of wind-dispersed seeds. Human interactions don’t ever seem this smoothly cooperative.
Did I Smell A Bear?
Leaves of Three
And that’s where my summer started this year. Identifying the multiple 20+ foot vines growing in the hedge row that my neighbors own. After a year of neglect of the living fence between our yards, something had to be done. I am the neighbor with children and pets that play outside, so I took it upon myself to remove the poison ivy.
Lost
Gradually the storm’s intensity picked up and while the wind became more audible in the tree canopy, the swaying of the tree trunks was what captured my attention at that moment. The sky darkened and the thunder boomed and rolled in the distance. It never occurred to me to go in. I was a part of it now.
Have You Ever Seen Vultures Snuggle?
A Night in the Life
At the end of one of the videos, we see him glide toward a large tree, drifting down at first then kind of curving up to grasp the bark, holding tight, not on the perch of a horizontal branch but on the vertical plane of the trunk. We could see his eyes illuminated by the camera. And then we saw the second set of eyes. The squirrel was not alone!
