Virginia Creeper: Blood Red
Now there’s a scary name for a plant. The Virginia Creeper. Sounds like something you’d want to stay away from around Halloween, for sure. It’s a native American plant that’s common in wooded areas, and it grows so prolifically that you’d think it would be easy to encourage it to grow in your backyard, but like all wild things, it’s tricky to domesticate. Wildings have a tendency to grow where they darn well choose, living life on their own terms, ignoring humans’ best efforts to pamper them. I’ve tried to lure the Creeper up my trellis, get it to drape...
Read MoreThe Dishevelled Cardinal
Thanks to Diane Hale Smith for this photo of a female cardinal having, as she put it, “a bad feather day.” Look at that beak–built like a nutcracker to crush the hard shells of sunflower seeds. Cardinals love feeders as much as we love watching them. Their bright red plumage seems made for inept birdwatchers like me who can never spot the little brown birds hiding high up in the branches. Cardinals don’t flee the snow and cold, they hang around all winter, brightening up the drabbest months. It’s hard to imagine this tiny morsel of a bird surviving subzero...
Read MoreDon’t Bite Off More…
…than you can ingest. Thanks to Diane Hale Smith for another great bird shot!
Read MoreThe Angry Cardinal
Well? I’m waiting. I really think I’m being very patient here. See this beak? This can crack more than sunflower seeds, you know. I’m not going to be patient much longer. Okay. I’m going to count to three. One. Two. Two and a half. I mean it. You’d better get a move on. Two and three-quarters. GET THAT SUNFLOWER SEED OUT HERE RIGHT NOW! Thanks to Diane Hale Smith for braving the Angry Cardinal to take this wonderful picture! ...
Read MoreStaghorn Sumac: Painting With Trees
Staghorn sumac. (Rhus typhina.) These dainty little trees are a common sight along roadsides. They seem to spring up everywhere, near dumps or malls or in weedy backyards. They’re the kind of tree no one notices. Except birds, of course, who love the sweet fuzzy berries, high in vitamin C and energy. But four hundred years ago, sumac seeds were almost literally worth their weight in gold. English botanists explored the New World in the early 1600s and were thrilled to discover a host of exotic species: exciting plants (which are ho-hum to us today) like goldenrod, sugar maples, white pines,...
Read MoreGuest Photographer Diane Hale Smith; A Study in Scarlet
Red. Blood red. Fire engine red. Crimson. That’s what hummingbirds like. These magnificent little birds are drawn to the color red like iron is drawn to a magnet, cats to catnip, humans to chocolate. Where I used to work, there was a bright red fire extinguisher bolted next to one of the doors, and sometimes when we left the door propped open, a hummingbird would fly in and spend quite a lot of time trying to suck nectar from the tube-shaped nozzle. I once made the mistake of wearing a red t-shirt on a hike—this was in Arizona—and I was constantly buzzed by hummers, going ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
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