My Coneflowers Are Now In Bloom

My Coneflowers Are Now In Bloom

They Bloom For About A Month

Then In August When The Blossoms Turn To Ripe Seeds

Lots Of Beautiful Yellow Finches Will Sit On The Flowers Devouring The Seeds

Our American Wisteria

Our American Wisteria

Our American wisteria is getting its second round of blossoms. It first bloomed in early May with blossoms about four inches long. Now in late June it is blooming for the second time. This time the blossoms are smaller---just two to three inches long. And this past month a pair of mourning doves built a nest in the greenery and raised the two cutest little mourning doves. I got to watch them as they were learning to walk around the swing. It was like watching a pair of human twins learning to toddle and explore.

Monument Fire Update: Our former neighbors in Sierra Vista may now be able to return home. Pueblo del Sol Village I and II has had a controlled ground burn of vegetation around homes the past two days while winds were mild. There is a three mile wide "firewall" now. The Monument Fire is now about 57% contained and they hope that if the mild winds remain they may have the fire totally out by this weekend. The fire has burned close to 30,000 acres and has destroyed over 57 homes, several businesses and many cars.

My Flower Gardens On May 28, 2011

The Gardener Trims Up The Climbing Roses

The Gardener Trims Up The Climbing Roses

I purposely didn't trim back this spring the white climbing roses on this black metal arch in our side yard. Big mistake. When the roses bloomed last week the weight became so heavy that the arch began to lean to the right. So my Gardener Jack had to rescue the leaning arch by cutting back the climbing roses. Lots of white roses ended up in our AAA trash bin. It was hard to do but we had to do it. After the roses finish blooming we will give these roses a second trimming.

Never a dull moment around here. First an arch about to capsize from all the blooming roses and then our beautiful robin eggs disappear. Most likely stolen and eaten by a crow or red shouldered blackbird or grackle. Fiddlesticks!

What Happened? The Eggs Disappeared Overnight!

What Happened?

The Eggs Disappeared Overnight!

Saturday night Jack and I went to bed after looking out the breakfast room window and seeing momma robin sitting on the nest. Sunday morning Jack woke up all excited. He calculated that the eggs were due to hatch either on Saturday or Sunday so he was hoping we would see tiny baby robins in the nest. Instead when he checked the nest momma robin was gone and the two eggs were gone too. Jack hunted but didn't find the eggs lying 0n the ground or on the patio near the nest.

So what happened to the eggs? Did a darn outdoor cat eat them? Did another bird remove them? What a bummer! If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment here.

The Robin's Nest

The Robin's Nest

I just love the color of these egg!

Robin egg blue!

And it is fun to watch her sitting on the nest keeping the eggs warm.

My Peonies Bloomed This Week!

My Peonies Bloomed This Week!

I made lots of bouquets for the kitchen and breakfast room of the peonies that bloomed this week.

The other day I looked outside my breakfast room window to the far left and saw a hummingbird gulping down hummingbird food from the feeder.

I then looked over to the far right window and discovered momma robin was sitting on two eggs in a nest in my white climbing rose bush near the patio. It has been so much fun to watch her sitting on her nest and guarding her two eggs. I wonder how long it will be till the eggs hatch?

Below is another peonie bouquet on the kitchen island. The blue flowers are catmint.

What Is This?

What Is This?

The answer: Lots of uniform holes made by a hungry woodpecker or two in our pear trees.

We have three Bradford pear trees in our yard and all three have these holes marching around the trunk. I wonder how long it takes a woodpecker to make one hole to get a bug buried inside the trunk?

Lots and Lots of Robins

Lots and Lots of Robins

This past week we had between snow and rain events an influx of robins. Somewhere between 30 and 50 robins descended to our property. They hung out in the pear trees in between feedings. What were they feeding on---take a look below.

Our five Nellie Stevens hollies did have lots and lots of red berries. Every year in January the robins return to eat all the berries on these hollies. Then they fly away to return a second time in March. So they ate and ate and then left once again. I guess I will spot them again in about six weeks.

Our Three Bird Hangouts

Our Three Bird Hangouts

1. By the Two Feeders That Jack Stocks With Cheap Seed From Coscoe
2. By The Arbor and Swing

3. In The Holly Trees and Bird Bath

Stay warm this weekend and feed the birds.

It's Raining In Haymarket, VA

It's Raining in Haymarket, VA

We had rain overnight and we have rain this morning. We are also under a severe thunderstorm watch like Georgia had yesterday where the storm spawn some bad tornadoes. Hopefully nothing serious will take place here today. See the rain drops on the windowpanes of my breakfast room. I noticed a cardinal feeding at the feeders. There was also a cute little Carolina chickadee feeding too but it flew away when I went to grab my camera. What to do on this rainy day? Maybe just sit on the couch and read a good book and think about watching Survivor tonight on TV.
Here's the cardinal feeding at one of the feeders. I still have a few red roses on this knockout rose bush. These knockoutroses bloom non stop from late April to late November here in Virginia. Stay dry today if it is raining in your neck of the woods.

Can Hummingbirds Read Calenders?

Can Hummingbirds Read Calenders?

September 30 Hummers at the feeders

October 1 No hummers at the feeders

Does that mean hummers have a special way of reading the lunar calender to know when to start heading south? Beats me. I just know that they got out of Haymarket, VA overnight. I already miss them coming to the feeders for my suger water.

A Little Bird Watcher

A Little Bird Watcher

Our Jack Aidan now has his own pair of binoculars for watching the birds in our backyard.
And for one whole week he wanted to be a "big bird" for Halloween.
But that was last week.
This week he wants to be a "big giant".
Jack's Daddy considered buying him a Giants t-shirt even though Daddy was almost choking on that thought since he is a died in the wool RedSox fan.

Hummingbird Videos

Hummingbird Videos

One shows a hummingbird at the feeders. One shows one hummingbird chasing another hummingbird away from the feeders.

Click on black triangles above.

Sad News

Sad News

The other week I found the baby bluebirds dead in the bluebird house.

I think the excessive heat brought about their demise.

So sad.

We Have Some Baby Birds!

We Have Some Baby Birds!

Take a look.

Jack Aidan's Baby Binoculars For Bird Watching

Jack Aidan's Baby Binoculars For Bird Watchig

Ben Brzielke, A Bird Expert, Part II

Ben Brzielke, a bird expert here in Virginia told us that we need to clean out our dirty used bluebird birdhouses about two or three weeks after the baby birds have flown away from the nest. You need to do this because the baby bluebird nursery is a mess. Much like a human nursery that isn't picked up and cleaned. You can find food droppings, bird droppings,mites, tics, maggots, etc. So you need to scrub it down with dish soap and water. Then rinse with plain water from the garden hose.Let the door open for awhile so that the birdhouse dries out completely and doesn't get moldy. If you do that at the end of the nursery cycle, you can attract up to three sets of bluebirds to your birdhouse in one spring/summer season. Ben says attracting birds to your yard is hard work but the enjoyment the birds give you makes the efforts worthwhile.

Ben's favorite bird is the North Carolina wren who he says is as active as a Jack Russell terrier. They are always bouncing around doing something. Ben is intrigued by the activity of swallows too. Sometimes swallows will get mites and ticks on their bodies. When that happens they look for an anthill and roll in the dirt. When this happens the ants emit a chemical that clings to the swallows feathers and kills the mites and ticks. Isn't nature fascinating! By the way, I now know why I have lots of swallows. We have a big anthill underneath our pink dogwood tree in the far corner of our lot.

Here's three more bird tidbits we learned from Ben. First, the aggressive blue jay loves to plant acorns. He will never live long enough to see a tall tree grow from an acorn but he keeps on planting the acorns and doing God's work. Second, male chimney swifts are very devoted to the females sitting on the eggs. They will search for shiny objects and present these "gift" to their hardworking and long suffering mates sitting on the eggs to keep them warm. Third, hummingbirds when they arrive in your yard after their migration from the south are very, very thin. They have lost ounces during that long flight northward so they need protein to help gain back the weight that they lost. That is why they may not frequent your hummingbird feeder very much in the month of May. They need protein to gain weight so they are searching for and eating very tiny worms and bugs that have that protein. Later in June they will enjoy coming to your hummingbird feeder that has sugar water instead of protein ladened bugs and worms.

Ben Brzielke, A Bird Expert

This past Wednesday the Manassas chapter of NARFE held its monthly meeting and Jack and I attended to hear Ben Brzielke speak about attracting birds to your property. Ben Brzielke who was born in Germany but who now lives near Waterford, Virginia shared some of his bird knowledge with us. For example, did you know that starlings are not a native American bird? In the 1930's a Shakespearean festival was held up in New York state and for this event hundreds of starlings were imported to the United States from England. So American starlings are actually English birds.

Ben also knows a lot about other wildlife besides birds. For example, did you know that if you build a brand new pond and don't add fish or frogs to it, you will still eventually end up with fish and frogs? Canadian geese and ducks who can fly from one pond to another will get fish eggs and frog eggs caught on their webbed feet and when they then fly and land on a brand new pond they deposit the eggs from their webbed feet. Whala-----there you have the eggs that will hatch and give you fish and frogs in your new pond.

Do you know which gender of bird will return first to your yard? It is the male. He scouts the area in March and when he finds a suitable territory for mating and starting a family he then goes back and brings the female to the suitable territory in April. In April there is lots of mating and nest building. In May the eggs appear in the nest and then the baby birds.

In these three photos above Ben is holding up a store bought birdhouse. Ben says that when you buy a birdhouse look for one that has a deep bottom underneath the bird hole in the box. That way predators cannot reach in to harm the eggs. The predators could be a raccoon, a snake or another bird. Male house wrens can have a harem of three females so they need three houses or nests so they will go to a birdhouse that already has a nest with eggs and peck holes in the eggs to kill the babies and to drive the adults away. Then the house wrens will build their nest on top of the old nest with the damaged eggs. Ben told us that he has even seen them build a nest on top of a dead baby bird. Ben who lives on a large farm says I've seen it all over the years! Amazing!

Tomorrow I give you Ben's tips for cleaning out your birdhouse and why you should do it. Plus he told us something I never knew about hummingbirds. I'll share that with all of you tomorrow. In the meantime go enjoy the birds in your own backyard.

Brave Bluebird Hanging Out With The Big Birds

Brave Bluebird Hanging Out With The Big Birds

I saw this fellow on the bird feeder post where the big birds like grackles, cardinals, and red shouldered blackbirds hang out. I think he was brave. Jack and I heard a bird man speak on Wednesday and I have learned lots of new things about birds. I'll write about birds for Saturday's blog. Got to run now. I have company coming for lunch from PA. I hope they like quiche, salads and a Wegman's fruit tart.