Flowers, bees, owl.

Sat, 30 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Lots of yard work today: ferns to prune, blackberries and weeds to pull, naps under the midday sun. I recall making blackberry pies in Illinois and paying $15 for the primary ingredient – here the blackberry is an invasive weed.

rhody and bee

Our rhododendrons are in spectacular form with brilliant colors and buzzing with bees.

barred owl

On the way to my yard waste pile I noticed out of the corner of my eye a slight movement. At first I thought it was a plastic bottle somehow stuck in the tree – instead it was a barred owl. I was pretty excited about it because I thought I had been hearing one in the mornings but hadn’t seen one.

Birds, flowers and ants.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Birds

We accepted IslandWood’s invitation today for a bird walk, our first foray into proper birding with a guide, binoculars, book and camera. Actually arriving on-time for the 8 am start was accomplishment enough; had we not seen a bird at least the get-everyone-ready time trial resulted in victory.

Since it was pretty overcast and the Saturday walk saw few birds Mark, our guide, would instead focus on calls. As we walked through the woods he would call name after name of birds, which pretty quickly became a mess in my head. I could either remember the name of the bird or the call, but not both.

Barred-Owl on

Flowers, bees, owl.

Birds, flowers and ants.

Birds