Sunflower Sky
Every day, especially after all that water this week, these sunflowers are creeping closer to the sky. The cold front brought not only rain but more birds and butterflies on the wing south. Keep watching for new faces every day!
Read MoreSunflowers Emerging
It’s happening! Sunflowers are blooming and their wonderful shades are emerging across our summer landscape. These will serve as tremendous food sources for birds on the way south. While our aerial insectivores are flying to their winter quarters right now, the seed eaters will be moving in the coming weeks and months. For now the flowers are all for the insects…
Read MoreEastern Purple Coneflower
This Eastern Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) makes for a spectacular “ornamental” type of plant for boxes and plots! I put ornamental in quotation marks because it is far more than a decorative object or flashy looking flower. It is a native perennial that is very popular among our pollinators, and adding them to your garden – wherever it may be – will not only give it a lovely look but also a feeding frenzy of insects. On the day I took this photo I saw Black Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, Orange and Clouded Sulphurs, Cabbage Whites, a Viceroy, and...
Read MoreSunflower Plot
The first “fall” migrant birds are already dispersing or moving about! Young swallows are leaving their nesting areas, shorebirds are beginning to come south, and flycatchers that may have had failed nests are already on the way to the wintering grounds. Later this autumn this sunflower plot will be a tremendously attractive spot to many passerine migrants looking for a feeding or resting area. Let’s keep up a good balance of rain and sunshine, please! For the birds.
Read MoreClover City
So many clovers, so little time! Welcome to summer. Let your grass grow up a bit and see what you can find. The bugs, bees to butterflies, will all appreciate it, and so will our air, your wallet and your back.
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