Mountain Lake

Thjree of us travelled from Foulkeways to Mountain Lake, VA, for a Road Scholar program, Secrets of the Scarlet Tanage: Birding in the Blue Ridge Highlands. We saw many birds, and learmed much about birds, and had a great time, and met many interesting people. And we had two wonderful instructors!

We saw little birds. Hummingbird

Big birds. Red tail hawk

Birds that were hard to find

. Blackburnian warbler Birds that were everywhere. Barn-swallow pair

Mountain Lake Nests

A female towhee feeding young

Barn swallows at nest on the Veranda

A Junco on an unusual nest that is high enough to escape predators. Even a red-breasted thrush! (Robin)

Mountain Lake Feeders

We saw many birds at the feeders, including this goldfinch.

Pine siskin

Male and female rose-breasted grosbeak

Towhee.

Even the chipmunk! He climbs the pole to get to the feeder.

Daisy Meadow

The front meadow is a sea of daisies.

Enjoy a walk in the daisy meadow, after the ground is dry. It is very wet today.

But not all is white, look for the eastern tailed blue butterfly.

The bluebird entering the box.

The beautiful blue spiderwort, or Tradescantia, is blooming the the second meadow.

Caterpillars at Mt. Cuba

Yesterday I drove to Mt. Cuba to hear a talk by David L. Wagner on Caterpillars. He wrote the book, and gave an excellent, interesting, informative and entertaining presentation.
The caterpillar is a Meganola spodia, but a rather poor photo by me.

I arrived in time for a walk in the woods.

There had been a light rain, but the flowers were beautiful.

Yellow lady slipper

Many yellow lady slippers

Rhododendrun

Up close

Bees

Our beekeeper checks the hives.

He checks the bottom of the tray for queen cells. All these are empty.

Honey!

Last year's queen wears blue.

The stick is pointing to a cell which is diseased.

We will test next week to see if this disease means destroying the hive.

Norristown Park

It was a wonderful day for a bird walk. At Norristown Park the tree swallows were everywhere!

Tree swallow on bluebird house

Tree swallow on Martin house

Tree swallow in wood duck house

We did see some other things such as this woodchuck.

Song sparrow

Green heron

Wissahickon Wetlands

Members of the Grounds Committee had a sneak preview of what our wetlands should look like in a few years.

Nearby workmen enjoyed their lunches on a bench overlooking the wetland.

An oriole was singing from this tree, and the red-wings and robins abounded.

Two geese flew in, but the number has dwindled.

We heard the frogs, but did not have time to look for them.

Seen today

White dogwood

Savannah sparrow on brush pile

Song sparrow on brush pile

This little half-inch caterpillar is what the migrant birds are looking for.

A crane fly on an apartment wall.

Looks like the phragmites are returning along the edges of the pond.