Saturday, June 16, 2012

Back to the Garden

Returned from Cape May on the night of the 11th; still basking in the delight of that week!

My birding buddy and sister, Mary Jo Stein, was there, and we went birding together several times.

The highlight of our final day of birding was a view of a Parula warbler --- a male, if full breeding plumage - and these are the most colorful of our mid-atlantic nesters, I think. He was singing his very high-pitched whistle, too.

This photo is from the Cornell Lab website:


Speaking of Cornell... I have continued my addiction to the Red-tail Hawk nestcam live streaming from Cornell.  Now all three young hawks have fledged, but we watchers and lurkers have continued to follow their progress as new flyers .  We have witness some drama with the third one, C-3 ( no nmaes for them until they are banded)  The experts think she is a female.  She was the last to fledge, and took her time about it.  Now she does worrying things like getting trapped in the loading dock of the Cornell Library ( someone caught her and rescued her and let her go) and spending a day and a half perched on a bike rack on the campus.  The chatters and camera folks have been joined by "BOGs"  - birders on the ground - who have been reporting and updating, while thousands of us online wring our hands and get no work done at home. 
You are probably thinking:  Get a life!    But this is a delightful part of our lives right now.

Here is C3  still in the nest:

Here she is, at the loading dock:

Here she is, on the bike railing:

What did that passer-by think?

Lots of anthropomorphizing going on at this chatroom, I can tell you.

Anyway... I have spent some hours back home this week in luscious, cool, dry weather, tackling the weeds in the garden, mulching, and admiring the flowers that are presently blooming there:

Calla Lilies from some past Easter:

Asiatic Lilies, Astilbe, Larkspur, Coreopsis, Swamp Milkweed, and still the Cherry Bells. I love to just stand there and admire them all.






No comments: