Fabulous Rain

We got 4" of rain over a two day period. This is amazing as we haven't had more than 1/2 inch of rain total in the last month!

Blue Flag Iris

We had a misty morning which left tiny droplets of moisture on the irises. So pretty...

Common Yellowthroat Warbler male

Today, I was sitting on my birding bench enjoying the great outdoors, when I heard an unfamiliar bird song in the underbrush nearby. As I scanned it, I saw a black masked bird hopping about. To my surprise, it was a male Common Yellowthroat Warbler. Click here to listen to their various calls on All About Birds.org

These birds hang around the underbrush, often near bodies of water. So, It makes sense that we would see them here. But, this is my first time spying a male in the 20 years we've lived here. I saw a female fly under the wood pile pallets about a month ago.

They are such pretty birds, but you have to look low to find them. I also saw the male poking around in the leaf matter on the ground. They generally eat insects and spiders.

Snapping Turtle Lays Eggs (great close-up video;-)

I am so excited! This snappy lady decided to lay her eggs next to the flower garden near the deck. I was able to set up a camera looking down on her and did some hand-holding of another camera to capture my best effort yet of eggs dropping into the nest hole! I did all the videography from the deck so as not to disturb her. The entire process took about 3 hours and has been compressed into a 6 minute video. As you watch the video, remember that this process has been going on for over 200 million years. Allow yourself to drop into an almost Zen like state and just absorb this ancient yearly ritual of egg laying. Enjoy!

Here is a still shot of the purty lady. I think she is a fairly young turtle and I think she might be different from the female who laid her eggs in our yard last year, but it might be the same female. This one seems a bit younger with a smaller shell.

Here is a close-up of her face. Snapping turtles reach sexual maturity at about 6 years old, and they live up to 30-40 years.

I was so excited to be able to zoom in on the eggs in the nest hole. Snapping turtles can lay up to 80 eggs, but 20-50 eggs is more common. I am thinking that she may have laid up to 50 eggs today. She used her hind legs to move the eggs around in the nest hole to make room for the next eggs to drop. She dropped between 1 and 2 eggs at a time.

The location of the nest hole as photographed from the deck.

The turtle cage was put over the nest hole to protect the eggs until hatchlings emerge between 9-18 weeks after being laid. We'll be looking for hatchlings to emerge between Sept. 4th to Oct. 5th.

By the way, this is the 800th post on Maine Nature Diary, on Blogger.

Sibling Revelry among Juvenile Gray Squirrels

We are overrun by delinquent gray squirrel pups! Their antics amuse us every day. There are at least 5, maybe 6, of these siblings. They move around so fast that it is hard to tell exactly how many of them there are. Enjoy this minute of frantic frolicking!

Yellow Shafted Flicker update and broken egg and embryo

Curiouser and curiouser...Drew found a broken bird egg with embryo parts scattered on our back deck. The Yellow Shafted Flickers moved their nest to a different location on May 22nd (18 days ago.) But, ever since then we have heard them and seen them going in and out of this nest hole as well, but figured they were just using it as a roost if the original eggs in their other nest did not hatch out? And, how did this egg get smashed? There are bits of yolk and embryonic fluid strewn around as well. Did a predator go into the nest and drop the egg, or were the woodpeckers moving their nest to here? Strange...

Looking at the developmental details that I can see on this embryo, I can only assume that it is around a 10 day old embryo of one of the Yellow Shafted Flicker eggs? Here you see the tail (ventral or belly side of the bird) and thighs.

I am at a loss. Did the woodpeckers move back in and have a second clutch of eggs? Here is the ventral side of the beak. This is confusing to me as I thought that the indentation was a nostril. But...

Here is the dorsal side (top) of the head with beak. I don't see nostril development yet.

Here is another view.

Garden Flowers of late springtime

Celandine is in the poppy family.

Hawkweed is one of my favorite wildflowers in late springtime. I was so happy to see it take up residence near one of my stump gardens.

I love poppies. Their thin, papery petals, and red ovary with purple stamen are quite the group of contrasting colors!

The rhododendron was very successful this year, although parts of the plant are still damaged from last winter's low snowfall and cold temperatures.

I have two different types of spiderwort. This one is pink with smallish flowers. I have a larger purple variety in a different partial shade garden.

Star of Bethlehem Lily is a tiny wildflower that has take up residence in a semi-shade garden off the front deck. One of its characteristics is the green underside of each petal.

Star of Bethlehem Lily

Unidentified flower. I love the stamen that stand on very tall stalks.

Garden flower update

Our flower gardens are changing weekly. Perennials come and perennials go, usually over a two week cycle. Here is the main stump garden's west side (along the road.) It now has Petunias (annuals) in the stump and in front of the stump. There are Lupines, Chives,  Dame's Rocket in full bloom. The Peony buds are starting to mature.

Here is a look at the north facing side of the main stump garden, which is a bit shadier.. Just to let you know, the Dame's Rocket (which the butterflies love) was dug up from the garden soon after this photo was taken. It is a troublesome invasive plant and it is taking over so much of this garden. I dug it up before it went to seed so it won't reproduce elsewhere.

And, here is the south facing side of the main stump garden. The violets have all gone to seed. And, the Spanish Pink Bells have gone by as well. 

I have a 6th Pink Bell, just on the outside of the triangular stump garden, that is in more shade and just came into full bloom.)

I love chives, both to eat and to admire. I have one clump in this garden and one that has "magically" appeared in the garden in front of the deck.

And, then there are the Lupine. They weren't doing very well in a different stump garden, so I moved them to the south facing side of this one. They are thriving!

The Peony buds are getting larger each week as well. Peony flowers are just fabulous in their size and color and I am excitedly awaiting opening day!

Oh, me oh my oh... the poppy buds are forming. I love the texture of the plant and the bud scales, and the flower developing within is stunning in its papery thinness.

I mentioned that the Dame's Rocket has been pulled up. Sigh...but not before I captured a photo of this beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail supping some nectar!

Near the secondary stump garden on the north side of the driveway, is the sweet smelling Lilac. It is gorgeous this year, but is almost a month late in blooming due to the cold springtime weather.

The azaleas are going by, and they were spectacular this year. There are white and light pink columbine sprinkled all along this north side of the yard as well.

I get so excited to see the blue flag irises bloom. They are just starting to open.  And, I like how they are native to the pond environment. I see them in the water along the shoreline.

Lastly, the high bush blueberry plants are flowering! Yay for blueberries! The flowers are so delicate. I love their downward facing nature. There are wild blueberry plants flowering over at the pond as well.

Here are the fertilized ovaries, some with the pistil still attached! Num, num, num...I can almost taste them in my memory, although this bush seems to grow somewhat tart blueberries. We rarely get any to eat as the birds gobble them up before the blueberries reach the ripeness that I prefer.

Gardening comic and the state of our vegetable gardens

This is a cute comic for the beginning gardener! (Click on it to enlarge it.)

Here is an overview of the plants in the veggie gardens as of today. This is 9 days after the first photo. Note that we switched two of the tomato cages around. Since the Celebrity tomato plant (on the left) is determinate, we figured that it didn't need the taller wire cage, so we gave it a wooden one instead.

We only have three zucchini plants and they will provide us with plenty! They have their first set of leaves on.

Check out our cucumbers. Nine days ago, they were just barely poking up through the soil!

The leafy greens are growing much slower. But, you can see a few sprouts in the holes of the bottom row. Those are Italian Parsley which seem to take forever to sprout. The spinach plants are doing quite well. I may need to replant a few of the lettuces.

Here is the cherry tomato plant. It looks so happy in its pot! It too, has grown quite a bit in 9 days. It was so tiny back then;-)

Early Girl Tomato plants are also looking good and strong. Nine days ago, they were rather wilted because there were two in the container and I separated them.

The Celebrity Tomato plant started out with a thicker stem, and was taller, and it still is nine days later.

Shiver Me Timbers Part 2 - June 2nd

What! I thought yesterday morning was the last day in the 30's! Proven wrong again...Ha! The loons and owls were very noisy last night, and I would be too, if I had to weather the overnight cold temps outside;=) But, at last it looks like we might, just maybe, be in a warming trend!

Well, Shiver Me Timbers! June 1st Weather...

Every week, I say this is the last time. Fooled again! Here is the "feel-like" temp. at 7am. The actual temp. is 39F.