-
Chicken Updates
It has been so hot and humid — yet with no rain — here in Raleigh that I’ve bottomed out on summer morale. I’m doing what I can to keep the plants from drying out and the chickens from overheating, but mostly I’m waiting on rain. This afternoon we finally had a short shower with more supposedly on the way. It’s expensive to keep watering the plants, but many of the perennials and shrubs are in their first year and…
-
House Wren Family
After the bluebird failure this spring, a pair of house wrens moved into the bluebird box on the blackberry trellis. They actually filled both bluebird boxes with nests but only laid eggs in one, which I later learned is common practice. The unused nest is called a “dummy nest”. Once the eggs hatched, we diligently kept the cats indoors to make sure that once the babies fledged, they wouldn’t fall prey to our viscous cats’ claws. Two days ago, the…
-
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ is a plant that has been banished from our fenced vegetable garden because it multiplies and grows well on its own without any attention and is a total space hog because of it. Last fall I dug up the crocosmia corms and moved some down to the street beside the rosemary and moved some just at the bottom of the deck stairs just outside the garden fence. They all popped back up this spring. The leaves are similar…
-
Dill Blossoms
-
Hummingbird Moth in Slow Motion
This afternoon we had a very special visitor in the garden. A Hummingbird Moth was drinking from the purple liatris spicata next to the birdbath fountain. I was able to get up close with my phone, although it was a little shy and kept moving behind the flower. Last summer we had one that seemed to enjoy the red salvia and lantana, and I have had my eyes open to see one this season.
-
Fledgling Woodpecker
I was outside checking on the chickens when I heard a rustling sound in a shrub on the edge of a neighbor’s yard. When I looked closer, there was a baby bird flopping around in the leaves and low branches. It has the markings of either a Red bellied Woodpecker or a Northern Flicker, though I’m not certain this is what it is. There is a faint rust colored band on the back of the neck, and I didn’t get…
