Creatures « The Garden Worm blog

February 26, 2010

Snow – woo-hoo!

Filed under: Creatures,Miscellaneous,Winter — Judy @ 10:27 pm

Well, folks, we finally got some of the intense snow that the rest of the country has been experiencing this winter. About time, I say, because I was feeling sort of left out. Sure, we’ve had a reasonable amount, but there is nothing like a good snowstorm to make things right. We shoveled a couple of times, as we prefer to do, but this morning we had to break out the snowblower so you know this was serious stuff. When all was over, we ended up with about 20 inches for this storm. Not a real “snowpocalypse,” or a “snowicane,” since we are used to such stuff in this area.

The Carolina wren has been hanging out under our deck lately. He is so cute with his little upright tail! I haven’t been able to get a good picture of him at the feeder because he bobs around so much, but here are his footprints in the snow.

Carolina wren snow tracks

What says winter better than snow on an Eastern white pine and a white birch?

The snow has just about obliterated the Van Houtte spirea (Spirea x vanhouttei) echoing the beautiful white blooms that will come late in the Spring.

The flakes were huge and fluffy. What a scene looking out over the yard!

And, after it was all over, the moon came out!

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February 11, 2010

This and that

Filed under: Creatures,Miscellaneous,Shows and Tours — Judy @ 4:15 pm

Reminder that tomorrow the Great Backyard Bird Count begins. Be a good citizen and count your birds! Link is in the sidebar or read more about it here. I’ve also added a few more bird pictures to the Winter Birds slideshow or open it from the slideshow link in the sidebar. The little Carolina wren and the Red-bellied woodpecker are new and I’ll add more pictures periodically. And here are the results of the bird picture quiz: there are nine cardinals (5 papas, 4 mamas), three house sparrows, and one tufted titmouse. Did you find them all?

The plant and seed catalogs have been arriving almost daily since before Christmas with all their enticing pictures! Hard to get motivated to order anything when there is still snow on the ground, but looking at the catalogs and seeing what is new out there in the gardening world nudges one in the right direction.

I have been hearing reports from my sister in Texas that they are cleaning up from unusual frost damage and things are starting to pop out of the ground. She volunteers at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens and according to their website, they have Alyssum, Camellias (Camellia sasanqua cultivars), Creeping phlox/thrift (Phlox subulata), Drummond red maple (Acer rubrum var. drummondii), Flowering quince (Chaenomeles spp.), Leatherleaf mahonia (Mahonia bealei), Narcissus, Pansies, Paperwhite Narcissus, Saucer magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana), Winter daphne (Daphne odora), Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), Winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum), Witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) blooming in January and February.

We’re not even close to that, but pretty soon it will be time for GardenScape 2010. This is an excellent annual event featuring landscaping and nursery professionals in and around the Rochester area. In its 19th year, there are display gardens, a marketplace, seminars, and other special events that visitors can experience. Mark your calendars for March 11th to 14th!

And finally, a note on the creatures of the garden other than the birds. The snow is full of tracks now. The deer herd rambles around munching everything in sight and we have a fox that makes nightly forays looking for, I suspect, innocent bunnies. Seeing the always-maddening squirrels completely foiled from discovering the birdfeeder with our soda bottle device makes me gleeful! And my own boot prints and ski tracks as I wander around just enjoying the fresh air. I wish I could identify all the tracks, but there are so many now that we need a fresh covering of snow to erase the old ones. Or, maybe not.

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January 30, 2010

More Winter, and More on Birds

Filed under: Creatures,Winter — Tags: birds, Winter — Judy @ 6:27 pm

Ol’ Man Winter has come back again! We have single digit temperatures now and the thermometer dipped below zero last night. Brrr! The thing about snow and cold now though is that you KNOW that Spring is only a few weeks (OK, months!) away, but you feel like maybe you can get through it. The sun has a tad of warmth to it, and the fresh snow sparkles with its brilliance. Oh, I know that there will gray days with gray slush and gray clouds and gray dispositions, but still . . .

Today was a great day for watching the birds too! They were very hungry, trying to stay warm with this cold weather. Both mama and papa cardinals (we counted 12 of the males all at once!), blue jays (squawk!), chickadee-dee-dees, tufted titmice, busy nuthatches, silly mourning doves, tons of little brown birds (mostly rusty-capped sparrows), ugly starlings, cute little juncos, and the most fun of all – a red-bellied woodpecker! Why they call him red-bellied when it is his head that is red is totally confusing to me, but that’s what the book says!

So, how many birds can you count in this picture? (Hints: 1) Click on the picture to open it larger. 2) There are 3 different species in the picture.)

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January 29, 2010

Great Backyard Bird Count 2010

Filed under: Creatures,Miscellaneous — Tags: birds, Great Backyard Bird Count — Judy @ 1:12 am

The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is an example of “citizen science” at its finest! Over four days in February (Feb 12-15), participants of all ages and bird-watching experience anywhere in the United States and Canada count birds. This creates a real-time snapshot that helps researchers gather information about birds and their wintertime habits.

It’s easy and fun – and it’s free! You can count for as little as 15 minutes on one day or count for as long as you like on each day. Count the birds at your backyard feeders or, if you don’t have a feeder, just in your backyard. Or take an outing to a local park or wildlife refuge.

The GBBC is a joint project between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. On their website (click here or on the bird picture link in the sidebar), you will find more information about the count, how to attract birds to your feeders, and help on those tricky bird IDs. You can also download tally sheets to help you keep track of your counts. Then, post your results and watch the counts come in on their map. What kinds of birds will you see?

Some birds seen in my backyard this year: