Fall Birds are Arriving

Yesterday the Cedar Waxwings arrived to strip the Juniper of all of its nicely fermented berries.  Each fall they arrive in droves and take care of it in no time.

It has been Very windy here for the last several days, and I’ve seen hardly any birds.  But this morning the yard was just filled with all sorts that I haven’t seen in quite some time, along with the usual goldfinches, house finches, and chickadees.  The first Dark-eyed Juncos are here, which is a sure sign of winter.  Also a couple of Nuthatches, I think a Hermit Thrush, and a gaggle of Robins helping out the Waxwings. 

We’ve cleared off most everything from the deck that matters, although some pots still look OK.  This year I think we’ll empty all of the soil from the deck planters, which we don’t always do.  Will be plenty of work, but will make storage much easier over the winter. 

Took cuttings of everything that I care about preserving over the last several weeks.  The light gardens in the basement are filling up, as are the windows in the atrium.  Grace is happy to have her papyrus plant back in the house so she can have a little bite now and then.  The big windstorm back in September knocked it down and broke the pot it was in, so I have it now in a slightly larger, plastic one that I can just keep filled with water and add a little fertilizer now and then.  It seems to like that even better than being planted in soil. 

We’re planning to have the willow in the back cut down later this fall.  The windstorm took a huge toll on it, and many branches are broken, split or hanging oddly.  It was certainly dramatically beautiful for many years, but its time has come. 

The late rains and warm weather encouraged a lot of second blooming on a variety of things, including several of the Clematis plants.  Nice to have flowers this late in the season.  The frost this week may take care of that, though. 

First cold and wet, Now hot and dry…

Seems like there should be some sort of in between with our weather.  The yard got off to a slow start, then got soaked with cold rain.  Now, its hot, and it hasn’t rained for over two weeks, at least not meaningfully.  We were supposed to get an inch today, but it pooped out after only about four tenths.  Hardly enough to wet the deck, though it was so hot and humid that things actually stayed damp for hours.  Still a chance for the next few days – let’s hope.  I would hate for everything that is so beautiful to just wither away. 

Got a new camera this week and took a bunch of photos this afternoon to see how it works.  Don’t think I have it figured out quite yet, but it does do some neat things.  Here’s a gallery of what’s going on in the yard right now. 

 

OK, May is the Month of Spring!

This week has been the first that has really been spring-like around here.  But OH! what a change we have seen.  The radishes and lettuce are both up in the new raised beds, along with the broccoli plants.  I also planted the onions and potatoes in two other beds.  This was the first year that the garden centers sold onion plants in stupid little three packs, with three or four plants in each pack.  Geez!  Had to hunt all over town to find something worth the purchase price.  Ended up buying two of the three-packs, one sort of better square flat, and a pack of pulled and banded plants.  I will compare the results for next year.  But they were all far more pricey per plant than ever before.

We did get all 8 yards of mulch spread around the yard, and Bill finished the new compost bins.  So, when the weather finally seemed to stabilize, and the yard bloomed with daffodils and tulips, it was wondrous! 

This morning was a bird-watcher’s heaven.  I awoke and raised the window shade in our bedroom to look out on the evergreen garden.  There were many birds out at the feeders and birdbath there, including three Indigo buntings.  I’ve only seen one of those since we moved here.  Gorgeous.  But it got better.  A little later we watched three pairs of rose breasted Grosbeaks around the yard.  The three males were dramatic, and the females blended in, but were obviously there.  The usual Goldfinches, Housefinches, Song sparrows, and Cardinals were around as well.  There is a troop of three or more Brown headed Cowbirds serving as the bully gang in the yard, along with the Crows who are making life miserable for the Red-tailed Hawk in our neighbor’s Spruce tree.  I have little doubt they will hide their eggs in one or more nests of the others.  Mid-morning, the Cooper’s Hawk made an appearance, and everyone else vanished for a few moments.  But they all came back. I’ve seen a hummingbird already, and there are Orioles around, though they have not been to our feeders.  There are two or three birds that I can’t identify for sure.  About the size of of a large finch, smaller than a Robin.  Most obvious feature is a white eye-stripe, and crest, with black stripes between. Front is greyish, back more to brown.  Short tail.  At first I though they were the female Grosbeaks, but then saw them together and they are different.    Help, friends, please. 

Snow Ducks and Garden Beds

After getting home following a morning and noon of meetings, today’s major activity was keeping the two Mallard Ducks who have been hanging out around our yard out of our pond and our neighbor’s. 

It is snowing again, with 6 to 10 inches expected before it is all over.  Just when we thought Spring had arrived, and just a day before Lee and Lin are due home from Florida, this happens.  I’m sure the ducks are just looking for a place to nest, but I really don’t want it to be in my tiny pond.  There are 40 or 50 small fish in there, having survived over the Winter.  I didn’t keep them alive all winter to provide food for ducks! 

This is the day after I saw a Turkey strut through our yard.  A single turkey, which I think is a rare occurrence, especially at this time of year.  She walked through along the creek, very deliberately, and I haven’t seen her since.  It is the first time we’ve had one in this yard that I am aware of. 

Yesterday I went out and cut a vase full of not quite open daffodils so that we can enjoy then outside.  I fear that there won’t be any more after this heavy snow.  Also cut some forsythia branches, fearing that the shrub outside would also be crushed by the heavy snow.  It will be a bonus if I’m wrong. 

Bill got the raised garden beds finished this morning, and in before the snow started.  I won’t get much chance to see what he’s done til all this snow melts though.  Here are the first two, finished last week.  We almost ordered 10 yards of bark mulch yesterday, and now I’m pretty glad we didn’t have it delivered.  No way we’re going to be able to truck it out there for a week or more now.  Spring work is on hold for awhile.

Finally the First Flowers in the Yard!

Today they bloomed for the first time.  One Crocus, ALMOST open, and another small blue bulb flower that I’m not sure anymore of the name.   Could be Glory of the Snow - Chionodoxa luciliae.  I know that I saw the Winter Aconite, which was last year’s first bloom in mid March,  setting up blossoms right before the foot of snow we got a week and a half ago.  But the snow has not yet receded from that location, so I have to give the “first” award this year to these two.  This is two weeks later than last year, and I suspect that things will happen quickly in the next couple of weeks, as things catch up. 

The real activity going on for the last few days has been in the bird life.  On Thursday I was eating breakfast in the atrium and heard an unusually loud honking above.  I looked up through the curved surface of the windows to see a huge flock of beautiful Trumpeter Swans flying directly overhead.  At least 30, maybe more of them on their way to breeding grounds north of here.  We still have all of the winter birds, and the spring population is arriving and thriving.  So, Juncos, English Sparrows, Chickadees, all sorts of Finches, Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, and Cardinals are sharing space with Robins, Redwing Blackbirds, Starlings, more Crows than last year, etc.  And then we see the Mallards, Canada Geese overhead, the daily flight of Sandhill Cranes back and forth from the fields to the east and the pond west of us.  Regular visitations from a pair of Great Horned Owls and a couple of Cooper’s Hawks and some Redtailed Hawks have seemed to keep the rabbit population down this spring.  The Song Sparrows are back also, and their song is becoming more joyful now that the snow is melting. 

As the snow melts, the damage from voles and plows becomes more and more obvious.  Voles destroy the top surface of last years lawn, but usually things grow back with no problem from undamaged roots.  The plows, on the other hand, dig up the edges of the lawn near the street and spew the chunks far into the yard.  It will take significant work to clean up their mess. 
We had someone come and give us an estimate of the cost of either removing or trimming the Willow tree in the back corner of the yard.  $375 to trim lower branches, $1200 to remove the whole tree.  Pricey for sure!  If I was clear about what we really wanted done the choice would be easier.  The trimming could be done this spring, but taking down the whole tree should probably wait for late summer hard ground.  I both love and hate that tree.   Can’t decide what to do. 

Turned off the heater in the pond today, I hope for the last time this year.  The fish are again coming up to be visible.  Water is cloudy for reasons I’m not sure of.  Working on adjusting the chemistry of the water, but particulate filtering may be what is really needed.  I really don’t want to have to drain and refill it again this year.  We lost so many fish doing that last year.

Waiting for Spring…. Still

It seems to me as though time has been suspended.  Last Tuesday/Wednesday the huge snowstorm came.  Then it got cold, very cold.  Each night the temps go below 10 degrees and things freeze up totally.  I guess that the snow is good to protect things from that.  But I AM TIRED of IT!  It is time to see the yard again.  The first photo here is one of the evergreen we call “Charlie Brown”.  It is usually just a nice looking, slow growing, minimal shade producing  focal point for the yard.  This morning we took a photo of it as “Start Spreadin’ the News!”.  The difference between one side and the other, created by the melting action of the sun relieving one side of weight but not the other,  reminded us so much of a dancer in a musical. 

So we wait to get out into the yard again.  Maybe next week. 

 

For now the birds are going crazy outside, consuming seeds from our feeders at an amazing rate.  And they are courting as though it were warm and nice outside.  I saw a robin so swollen with eggs that I hope she can make it til it warms.  And even the Juncos are sparring with each other in ways that are unusual here, they usually mate farther north, after leaving us for cooler places. 

 

I did decide to take pictures of all of the flowers that are blooming inside of the house.  There are quite a few, give that the increasing light this time of year pushes everything to make flowers, as long as the temperatures are accommodating.  So, just for fun, here are the things that are blooming in my house today:

Inside Blooms VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Then and Now

Here is last year on March 15th in Sunnyview Gardens.  

 

 

 

 

 

And here is this year on March 23rd. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a difference a year makes.  I hope we catch up eventually.  The 12 inches of snow we got yesterday and the day before were discouraging for sure, especially since most of the previous huge snowstorm had melted and I was beginning to see the whole yard and begin planning.  It is melting again quickly in the bright March sunlight even though the temperatures are still way below normal.  The robins and redwing blackbirds and sandhill cranes that arrived last week are not the happiest birds I’ve ever seen.  Robins gather around the few places where there were deep puddles before and the grass still shows through.  I hope they can find at least enough worms to keep them alive til the rest of the yard thaws. 

We have more birds at the feeders and under them than we’ve had in a long time.  Even the redwings are coming close to the house for whatever food they can find.  The chickadees are consuming much of the seed, but also hanging upside down on the limbs of the evergreens picking at something I can only guess is small bugs hiding there.  A song sparrow, who we haven’t heard in many months, is sounding more mournful than joyful as it sits atop of the dwarf Alberta Spruce. 

I was ready to start the yard work this week.  We have a lot to do getting the new raised beds built and installed.  Also want to move a bunch of perennials around.  Gonna have to do everything quickly this spring I think. 

That was Yesterday…

And this is Today:

Oh well.  Spring will come eventually.  I hope.

The Melt begins… and ends.

I’ve been taking snapshots of our yard over the last week to document what I had hoped would be the beginning of the end for our deep snow cover.  And although it has been pretty dramatic, the snow beginning outside of my window this morning foretells a reversal of this good fortune.  Tomorrow’s post will show the results of today’s storms, but for today, the week past in pictures taken each day at about 4:30 PM, starting last Sunday.

These are views of our pond

And here the view from the deck to the willow

Spring!

OK, maybe not quite yet.  But it is in the wings, just waiting.  Even though we have had snowfall after snowfall, I believe that Winter is about to loose its hold on us.  For a variety of reasons.
The light is stronger in the afternoon for sure.  Punxsutawney Phil,  the most frequently cited groundhog in the prediction business, did not see his shadow this morning and thus predicted an early spring.  And yesterday, when we tried to move the snow away from the pond heater we found at least a three square foot opening in the pond.  Not sure why that happened, probably because the heater was buried under snow that acted as a blanket of sorts.  But it felt good.
The number of birds in the yard has been nothing short of amazing.  Must be 20 or 30 Goldfinches, as many House Finches.  A band of Chickadees checks in several times a day.  Quite a few Juncos, and many sparrows.  The Cardinals are frequent visitors to the feeders – not as many as in summer, but at least one pair is a regular.  I’ve seen two Nuthatches pecking their way down the trunk of the library honey locust a couple of times.   They collectively go through the contents of our five feeders in short order, which keeps Bill out in the yard filling them every other day or so.  I put out some suet, hoping to attract the woodpeckers that I hear occasionally to come closer, but haven’t been successful so far.
In the basement, the geraniums that have been hanging in the cold room are ready to be sliced up into cuttings and rooted for spring planting.  I hope that works better this year than last.  Our neighbors say that we start too late usually, and they do their rooting in the first week of February.  So that will be tomorrow’s assignment. 
There are also many other plants in the lighted basement plant stand that have been holding their own since I saved them last fall from the killing frost.  Mostly from cuttings, but some from the severely cut back mother plant, they have grown nicely over the winter with little attention.  Now is the time to cut them back again, and start thinking about hardening them off to make the transition to outside in a few months. 
Only three plants have survived from the Rex Begonia leaf cuttings I took.  I had over 15 plants a year ago, but they had all come down with some sort of fungal infection which no amount of anti-fungal spraying could cure.  They struggled over the summer, but never really recovered.  I took 7 or 8 leaf cuttings in fall and really immersed them in antifungal treatment before trying to root them.  They all rooted, but only three survived the transplant into individual pots.  I think I finally understand why these are so expensive.  I’ve always had such great luck with them until now. but when they go they go fast.