Green Heron
Spring is filled with so many wonderful sights and sounds as a multitude of colorful songbirds return and fill our landscape with life. However, there are many other bird families returning to us as well. This Green Heron (Butorides virescens) was an unexpected and gratifying capture a couple of weekends ago while I was targeting warblers. It really provided a wonderful pose and superb bokeh for me for a few seconds during our chance encounter. Green Herons are special in that they are one of a handful of bird species in the world that use tools as they can fish using lures and bait. They...
Read MoreWhite-eyed Vireo
The White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus) was high on the list of spring targets for me this year, as I have not had a good look at the species in quite some time and I certainly did not have any decent photographs of one. That sentence was past tense because I recently accomplished this mission. I certainly feel as though I can do better, but considering its behavior, the weather conditions, location, and time of day, I was happy with what I got. Can you tell why they are called White-eyed Vireos? This uncommon (at least in our region) species is often relatively elusive despite being...
Read MoreCelebrations Set In Stone
If you pay a visit to RTPI this spring, you will find that our flower beds are bedecked with new garden stones. The garden in the circular drive received a stone in honor of, and donated by, the Green Thumb Garden Club, who has tended this garden for many years. A Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “The earth laughs in flowers” adorns this stone, along with the iconic Snowy Owl image as painted by Roger Tory Peterson. The garden at the side of the building boasts a stone honoring the Jamestown Garden Club. This group tends the garden which is called “Eleanor’s Sanctuary” in memory of Mrs. Eleanor...
Read MoreSpring Blooms in Wild America
In the spring of 1953, Roger Tory Peterson and his British friend James Fisher embarked on a thrilling 100 day, trip to explore and document the Wilds of North America. Their excursion took them from Newfoundland to Florida, the heart of Mexico to the dry Southwest, the Pacific Northwest to the Pribilof Islands of Alaska, and the numerous memories of the splendors they encountered were later documented in a book titled Wild America, first published in 1955. Among the many things that Peterson and Fisher recorded along their journey were blossoming spring flowers, and this pen and ink drawing...
Read MoreSpring Ephemerals
Trilliums like the one shown here – and other ‘spring ephemeral’ wildflowers – only bloom for a short period of time in early spring; they then die back to their underground root system. But what a welcome show they put on each year, after we’ve been seeing nothing but snow for months! Before the tree canopy in our forests fully leaf out, the forest floor is briefly carpeted with flowers. Please enjoy them where they are found – in their native woodland habitat. Tempting as it may be to transplant some to your garden, most of these plants don’t survive and they are becoming...
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