Nature Notes: First half of June 2013

This has been an unusually pleasant June so far.

 

Last year June was one of the hottest months of the year.

I have been relieved that this June hasn't been very hot at all.

We still have a lot of summer yet to come but it makes a big difference when the heat is somewhat delayed.

Queen Anne's Lace (above) has started making an appearance.

I love the way the American Robins look after a bath all fluffed out.

Unfortunately the bird baths are often dirty in shots I take because I'll notice they need cleaning whileI take the shots.

 

The mimosa trees (above) are starting to flower.

I have a lot of house finches at the bird baths but the colorful males usually fly off before I shoot them and I get more shots of the muted feathered females (above) instead. 

I've started to see juvenile cardinals at the bird baths (above and below).

When the adult female cardinal (below) arrived at the baths the juveniles left abruptly. 

The last two shots are of brown thrashers. 

I think I neglected to I.D. the first bird that began this post as a bluejay; the second was a ladybug on a mimosa tree leaf. I don't know what made the hole in the tree in the third shot.

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Today's Flowers and Weekend Flowers: Hydrangea

My two hydrangeas used to have blue blossoms when they matured.

The parent hydrangea above now has a mix of pink and blue blooms due to changing soil pH.

The blue hydrangea above was subdivided years ago from the original one and the offspring still has all blue blooms when mature.

I guess the soil in my backyard is acidic which is the conditions for blue hydrangeas and the soil in my side yard is becoming more alkaline.

I like the way the hydrangea which now has some pink blooms is a mix of colors.

The mix color bush has pink, purple and blue all jumbled together.

The all blue bush has some white left in some of the blossoms but that's because they are still relative early blooms.

There is still some white left in the mixed colored bush but the white changes to either blue, pink or purple when mature.

In the fall all the blues change to a wine color before turning brown.

I have other flowers I'll feature later but I wanted to show the various shades of my hydrangea blooms this week.

Click for the home of Today's Flowers and Click for the home of Weekend Flowers.

photohunters: Unknown Windows

This is another week where the two photohunters themes (Unknown and Windows) work well together.

In a large city like New York, NY there are a large number of unknown windows in tall buildings. I certainly can't imagine trying to count the number of windows in these buildings.

There is a lot of unknown activity taking place behind these many windows.

 

Reflections make the rooms behind the windows unknown in some cases.

Even when you catch a glimpse of the rooms behind some of the windows they are like looking in a doll house and most of what's taking place is unknown.

Click for the unknown photohunt and click for the windows photohunt.

Nature Notes: Green in the Manhattan

This will be a different type nature notes than what I usually do.

I was in Manhattan over the weekend for a wedding so I'm featuring the nature I observed there.

I was struck by how much green I could spot when I looked out the window.

The first three shots were taken from my hotel window on the 27th floor looking at rooftop gardens and also across the Hudson River.

I went outside on the courtyard outside of the wedding party room and spotted the pigeons above.

It was a beautiful green area to walk around in for a breath of fresh air.

Parts of the courtyard were still wet from the rain the day before so it was mostly the pigeons, me and some children wandering around out there.

I think having green spaces in a city is very important.

Of course Manhattan has Central Park but the pockets of green here and there make a big difference to me too.

Friday's rain left everything fresh and beautiful on Saturday.

The pigeons above were having a party themselves.

The pigeon on the rail above was watching me and the one below was finding food in the grout.

I took the rest of the shots from my sister's apartment balcony on the 13th floor.

There were lots of little clusters of trees and bushes.

I think having a balcony with a few potted plants makes a big difference in city living.

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May Ends June Begins

The shots in this post are from the last few days of May and the first three days of June.

My purple coneflower (Echinacea) shown below is beginning to form buds.

I look forward to those coneflowers and the birds like them too.

What used to be my greenhouse, shown above, has become a shade house with honeysuckle and Virginia Creeper completely covering it at this point.

The American Robins love to bathe on my deck.

I photographed the sky and tree below in my backyard today and within a few hours the sky turned dark and it poured rain.

My back yard has become a total jungle and I need a bush ax to chop my way up the hill to the top part where I have flowers blooming.

The dogwood tree below provides a green umbrella over my driveway.

Hydrangea leaves love to soak up rain. They can curl up fast in the hot part of the summer but revive fast with rain.

I love the way rain soaked plants and flowers look.

On a walk along a creek the bank growth was so dense at places it formed a ceiling over the water.

The next shot is at a narrow part of the creek where the growth on either side was touching.

The two shots above and the one below are the only ones that I didn't take in my yard or on my deck. This creek is close to where I live.

 Honeysuckle is trying to take over the world at my house.

Butterfly weed thrives in my yard and both the bees and butterflies love it. I started it from seed years ago and it self seeds like crazy coming back stronger than ever each year.

The blackberry vines have more and more flowers and before long the berries will start forming.

I think the male house finch looks like a little jewel.

The female house finch blends into my deck perfectly.

The bluejay was daring me to interrupt its bath.

I let it finish before I added fresh water.

The Ficus pumila (creeping fig) that I planted years ago in the back of my house has gone crazy. Not only does it cover the wall around the outside of my water heater room it goes all the way up my chimney.

The creeping fig used to partially die back in the winter and wasn't so out of control but after quite a few years with milder than normal winters it's going wild.

The bees love my hydrangea flowers.

I enjoying watching bees and they are more interested in the flowers than me so I don't get stung.

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