6-12

Today the small waxy-white low growing flowers of Pyrola started to open as did the showy yellow head-high flowers of Common Evening Primrose.

John

6-10

Partridgeberry is starting to flower as is Meadowsweet. Bright yellow Bullhead-Lilies rest like multiple solar discs on the watery horizon of nearby ponds.

John

I left my house at 7:30 AM in the mist and was greeted by a cacophony of sounds from the wood thrush, hermit thrush, to the veery. I was grateful to live in Dummerston, and I felt that way at last night's selectboard's meeting.

6-9

Cedar Waxwings were feeding on half ripe Shad berries this morning. Moneywort and Whorled Loosestrife both started to flower. And in the fields one of the Fritillary butterflies - perhaps the one named Aphrodite - sampled a grand array of wildflowers.

John

Right outside my front door I have a small wood shed that lies alongside the outside of the building. Two months ago I noticed that a bird was building a nest on a beam in the shed, four feet from my front door. I thought she'd decide to move when she realized how close she was, but no.

There are now four little babies growing fast in that nest! Anyone want to tell me what kind of birds they are?

6-6

This morning, adult Red-bellied Woodpeckers fed begging fledglings in a tree outside my kitchen window. Red-bellied fledglings have brown heads for a few weeks before slowly molting into bright red adult head colors.

I'm also reporting a plant oddity I stumbled upon recently. An albino Common Milkweed - a plant lacking chlorophyl. I would guess this plant to be a genetic dead end, but for it's brief season it has its own odd beauty.

Research indicates that albino plants may live as parasites on other plants, stealing nutrients through their root system.

This picture gives a better idea of the oddness of this plant than wolrds could ever convey.

John

6-4

In a wet meadow, Creeping Buttercup, identifiable by the pale blotches on its leaves, is starting to flower. Maiden Pink has taken over a swath of my back lawn. And every ditch and swale is filled to water level with Forget-Me-Nots.

Summer is here.

John

6-2

In my field the pale pink , bell-like, fragrant little flower of the Spreading Dogbane were opening today. Dogbane is a great insect attractant; butterlies, moths, bees and flies swarm to it. Along the road, Bladder Campion with its odd melon-like calyx sacs and its deeply divided white petals was putting on a show. And what I tentatively identified as Spring Forget-Me-Not - a white variety of the familiar sky blue forget-me-nots cast me an hour of research, as I had never before heard of white forget-me-nots.

After lunch, I wandered the fields with the tart sweet juice of tiny sun warmed strawberries on my tongue; a fine undomesticated tonic, one that can't be purchased.

John

Go to my blog and read about a dragonfly being born (May 31).

Also the search for a rare violet in Vernon. (June 2).

www.themeditativegardener.blogspot.com

6-1

It is the time of year for woodpeckers to fledge young. This morning, just up the road from my house, Hairy Woodpecker nestlings begged vociferously but invisibly from deep within their nest cavity. An anxious adult Hairy Woodpecker hitching around the trunk of a nearby tree confirmed the identity of these unseen and very unmusical chorusers.

John

5-30

The showy flowers of Purple-flowering Raspberry dotted the thickets this morning, clusters of small yellowish-green flowers festooned the Poison Ivy, and the first flowers of Meadow Rue were opening.

Over the fields, Red-spotted Purple butterflies circled and danced. Southern Red-spotted Purples hybridize with Northern White Admirals in this area producing different degrees of white banding on their offspring.

John

5-28

It has become extremely rare to find a Phoebe's nest anywhere except in a man-made structure, but this morning I located just such a nest in the root ball of an ice storm toppled pine. It was as nicely sheltered by the overhanging upper root edge as any nest I've ever seen under a human roof.

In the field, orange Hawkweed opened its first few blossoms of the year, and along the road Ragged Robin with its skeletal pink petals and thin wiry stems appeared very aptly named. And Yellow Goat's Beard tipped its face to the early sun before closing at midday.

John

5-27

Today the clean white petals and the sunny yellow central discs of Ox-Eye Daisies spangle the roadsides. In the ditches Bittersweet Nightshade with its swept-back violet petals and its yellow "beak" of anthers climbs toward the sun. In one marshy weed patch Muskflower is in full flower. Muskflower is found in only this one spot in Dummerston.

Growing from a crack in a steep crumbly ledge I found Maidenhair Spleenwort looking much like a miniature fern. Maidenhair spleenwort is not rare, but - since I had never noticed it before - it was a true rarity for me.

And in a shrubby maple sapling I found a half grown Barred Owl, still downy and tailless but solidly perched and very alert. Probably it was blown from its nest tree by last night's powerful wind. An adult owl hovered nearby. I snapped a few quick pictures and then moved quietly out of the little owl's life.

John

On the way home from fallen trees making roads impassable, I saw a pair of scarlet tanagers fly by.
A delight

5-25

This morning the pink veined white flowers of Common Wood Sorrel were open, as the pumpkin-gold flowers of Golden Ragwort, and the globular brownish-purple flowers of Purple Avens AKA Water Avens.

Overhead Chimney Swifts could be seen powering sleekly back and forth across the skies.

Closer to earth, two male Luna Moths hung on the side of a weathered shed in total, stark and dangerous contrast.

Overall, the heavy sweet scent of Russian Olive - an alien invasive tree species - came and went with every shift of moist morning air.

John

Tuesday May 25 The golden fox and his partner who have made a den on the southwest edge of my property have managed to grab and eat 3 hens over the past 14 days. Last week, while on the phone, I heard the rooster's alert call and the hens frantic sqawking. When I got to the porch I could see the fox, with hen's neck in his mouth just entering the woods. I screamed. The fox dropped the hen, remarkably unharmed, and he ran into the woods. Sunday early morning the fox was lying at the edge of the lawn in wait. We have clipped the hens' wings, fortified and heightened the pen fence, and poured used cat litter close to where we believe the fox den is. Any other suggestions are very welcome.

On 5.23.10 a female Baltimore Oriole distracted me from my gardening as she worked to harvest a piece of fibrous stalk from last year's goldenrod - she worked and worked, and finally succeeded in pulling the stalk so she could stand on a large rock as she worked. Finally, she flew off, a two-foot ribbon trailing up into the apple tree overhead.
As sun was setting last evening, her mate caught the last rays of sun as he flitted in the tops of white pines nearby, landing on the new candles, demonstrating his acrobatic prowess.
Welcome to the neighborhood, and best wishes on your new home!

5-23

Yellow Wood-Sorrel and Yarrow both picked today to start flowering in my neighborhood. Bristly Locust - an introduced shrub - opened its large pink pea-like flowers along the roadside. A Silver-Spotted Skipper, new to the world this morning, flitted back and forth across the road. And, in a nearby field, male Bobolinks flew up and over the grass, circled and dropped back to the ground, over, and over, and over again.

John

5-22

My field was alive today with the drab, weak-flying butterflies called Prairie Ringlets. Also flying was the first orange folded-winged Skipper of the year. Skippers are rather moth-like butterflies which populate the fields with such variety and such profusion that I have yet to tackle the challenge of learning them all. Easily identified Hawkweed opened its annual floral assault on the neighborhood, and the aptly named Indigo Bunting male could be seen, along the brushy margins that it loves, but not yet heard.

John

5-21

The spiderlings I saw yesterday turned out to be Cross Spiders AKA Garden Spiders (Araneus Diadematus) and scientists think that they cluster in response to humidity - a single drop of water could be a fatal trap to a tiny spiderling.

Today Wild Geranium is in flower as is Red Clover and White Clover and a Milbert's Tortoiseshell butterfly flitted and zigzagged over the meadow as if its energy was absolutely boundless.

John