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| My favorite azalea at the Jenkins Arboretum |
Actually, the great "weekend" began one day earlier. As I was scooping birdseed from my storage can in preparation for filling my feeder early on Friday morning, I heard a terrific "thwump" on the window behind me and knew instantly from that sickening sound that a bird had flown into the window. I thought it was probably one of the Blue Jays that had been at the feeder a minute earlier fleeing from a hawk. But no, it was an Ovenbird, an aberrant warbler that looks like a tiny thrush. Fortunately, the bird was just stunned (and not killed) from the impact, which allowed me to gently lift it off the ground and give it a good inspection - including the orange cap that is almost never visible in the field. I placed the bird back on the ground and 15 minutes later, when I went outside again, it flew off.
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| Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) Image courtesy of Audubon |
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| Azalea and Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) |
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| I liked the contrast of the delicate young maidenhair ferns over the strap-like trout-lily leaves |
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| Along a path |
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| Trillium grandiflorum (Large-flowered Trillium) |
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| Pinxter-bloom azalea |
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| I liked the contrast between the dark, coarse bark and the delicate pink flowers |
8 comments:
Beautiful, Scott. I like the Pinxterbloom azalea a lot. And that Ovenbird is quite remarkable. Did you take it inside while you got your camera, setting it on that branch later for a perfect shot?
:)
Some beautiful blooms. Amazing what comes up when deer are excluded from an area; my local reserve have fenced off small plots of just a few square metres which rapidly show a completely different character to the rest of the reserve.
We don't have any azaleas with that kind of orange flowers. I wonder if our native azaleas are the same as yours. The flowers certainly look similar.
I really like the pinxterbloom azalea a lot, too, Packrat. In fact, I noticed a few blooming in a private woodland right alongside a road near my preserve last evening. I was so shocked that the deer hadn't gotten to them.
I often regret that I don't take out my camera to capture some images soon after they happen (like this recent Ovenbird window collision and the Red-shouldered Hawk that crashed through our enclosed porch window over the winter--that window's still not fixed, by the way---but I'm so caught up in the moment that it's not until afterwards that I think about it.
John: I had no idea that folks in Britain had to deal with similar depredation situations. Of course, I know that in many locations sheep are a problem, but I didn't realize deer were a problem as well except in places like Scotland that are a little wilder and less populated.
We have some exclosures in my preserve, but they are in very shady locations and most are so infested with aggressive invasive plants that we don't notice a big contrast between inside and outside the exclosures.
Mark: The orange azalea is certainly not native--I'm sure it's a cultivar of a Korean or a Chinese species. But I still think it's lovely. All of the plants in the garden are meticulously labeled and cataloged; next time I visit, I should make note of the name of the azalea.
I don't know the full range of the pinxter-bloom azalea. It very well may extend as far south as your woods.
Looks like a beautiful place for a walk. Love seeing that ovenbird.
Jenkins Arboretum IS a beautiful place to walk, Robin Andrea. I said to Kali today (Sunday, May 18), that we were so lucky with our timing last week because so many of the azaleas here are already losing their blossoms, and I'm sure they are at Jenkins as well.
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