Chez Moi--Blue Birds Everywhere I Look

Hot weather can make me cranky, especially when temps near ninety strike in May, before I've managed to get acclimated to summer heat. I've been forcing myself to be outdoors before 7am for my daily woods and fields ramble. Sophie and I don't take the same route everyday, but we like to explore at least 90 minutes every morning and we always make a sweep of our back meadows, especially where the stream rushes through a thicket of young saplings--birch, beech, black cherry, maple, poplar, and ash.

Indigo Bunting
While walking there this morning, I saw my first indigo bunting of the season, in the same general area where I spotted one last spring. He made a racket as we walked by and flew back and forth. Aahh, nesting behavior, I whispered to Sophie. (At least it is for other birds--I'm not sure about indigo buntings.) It would be wonderful if he and his mate raised their young at our place, especially since another site on our mountain road, where I spotted a nesting pair last year, was destroyed last fall and winter by logging.

And, to top off the week, we still have a pair of eastern bluebirds hanging out on our fence in the meadow. They've now been around for a week. Does this mean they're considering staying here for the summer? I hope so! Yesterday I saw two bluebird females. A menage a trois? No, bluebirds are pretty strait-laced about their sexual relationships. However, they often produce two broods and sometimes three in a single season. After thinking we'd have to wait until next year to post a bluebird box, I now know there is time for Ken to build one after all. I'll bring it up when I tell him I bought his favorite kind of hamburger for dinner tonight. (I broke down and bought 85% lean instead of the usual 90%. It's Memorial Day Weekend, after all.)

Enjoy your weekend! May it find you outdoors surrounded by nature.

Yes, it was a big birding weekend, but in the midst of all the fine-feathered drama overhead, we couldn’t help but notice the wildflowers decorating the forest floor. And on many wilderness paths, especially those that rarely have human visitors, it’s a trick to avoid stepping on them.

Everyone oohs and ahhs over the red trillium and painted trillium. The red trillium, sometimes called purple trillium, is neither red nor purple. It’s a beautiful shade of maroon with lovely dark green foliage. The amount of reddish-purple streaking on the painted trillium varies from flower to flower—some have very little coloration while others have a great deal.

Red trillium has a funny folk name—Stinking Benjamin. The name supposedly came about because some people thought the flower smells like a wet dog. With my very young clients, I love to get down on all fours and sniff the flowers to see what they think of the odor and what it reminds them of. Yesterday everyone decided that the odor resembled a slightly fishy smelling riverbank.

The trout lilies, a graceful yellow flower emerging from green spotted foliage, are everywhere, too, and so are the Carolina Spring Beauties (love that name!)

Wild Columbine
And this afternoon, when Sophie and I reached the top of the ledge, I gasped. Growing right along the edge of the cliff were numerous wild columbine wildflowers! They weren't there last May, that's for sure. The only wild columbines I saw in our area last year were over a mile away. So how did they get to one of my favorite wild places? As exposed to the elements as the ledge is, maybe the wind blew the seeds there? Or were seeds deposited by birds or via the scat of another animal? Since there are many plants where there were none before, I'm mystified.

Peak Birding!

The peak songbird migration days in the Adirondacks have arrived. Lots of warblers and vireos have already come back or have passed through on their way north, but the best days for viewing are now here for the next five to seven days. Even after that, the birding will still be good until early June when we settle down with our resident songbird population.

I was stunned to see a small flock of White-Crowned Sparrows hopping in the area that was once an inground swimming pool. The white stripes on their head are striking. They won't stay, though--they're on their way to Canada for the summer.

And, while I was discussing plans for an addition to our gardening deck with the carpenter, a bluebird landed on a fencepost in the field below. This is the first time I've seen a bluebird on our property. I went beserk, of course, and the carpenter probably thinks I'm a lunatic, which I am, I suppose, so who cares?


Oh, I'd love it if a bluebird pair would stay and breed here. I would've asked Ken to build a bluebird box if I had known they'd be dropping in. Next year we'll place one in an optimal location. For bluebirds, that would be on the edge of the field next to the woods.

I can't convince any of my friends to go mountain birding with me, up to the boreal forest on top of Crane Mountain. (Boreal forest in our area starts at about 2800 feet.) Guess I'll have to go on my own, which I don't mind at all, really. Are you free on Memorial Day Weekend? I'm leading a boreal birding mountain trip on Sunday the 27th.

Phew! My Bird is Back

I was a bit worried early in the week. The yellowthroats had not returned, and last year they arrived on May 3rd. There were no frontal systems or storms holding them up that I could determine, so where were they?

In the early spring every birder worries about late arrivals, wondering if the winter season in Central America, South America, Mexico, Texas, Florida, or the rest of the southern U.S. was too difficult for them. But believe me, winter weather in their southern habitats is the least of the songbirds' problems. What is causing alarming declines in songbird populations is the destruction of their winter habitats to development and agriculture, which deprives them of food and shelter. Every year fewer and fewer birds return to their summer breeding grounds in the North.

Of course, loss of habitat due to development is a crucial problem here as well. If birds don't have the space and the places they need to breed and raise their young, they are unsuccessful in producing offspring.

In any case, if you are concerned about this issue, there is an excellent new book available written by the Canadian biologist Bridget Stutchbury, Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World's Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them.

If you would like to listen to an outstanding hour-long interview with Stutchbury, go to the May 9 broadcast of Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" program. You can listen to it online or download it. Ken and I listened to it during dinner last night and were quite moved by it.

On Wednesday morning, May 9, I shuffled out in my bathrobe with my binocs and lo! I heard the yellowthroats singing their hearts out. I ran back inside and dressed hurriedly, then rushed down to the stream and the very young deciduous woodland that surrounds it. And I found a couple hopping around and flying from tree to tree, singing the "witchery witchery witchery" song. Hurrah!

Mother's Day Morning Birding & Wildflower Adventure 9am-12pm $20/adults; $10 children


The two days I spent hiking near Lake George were simply beautiful. The weather was perfect--sunny and not too warm, unlike today which got up to a dry 83 degrees.

The trail I found deep in the Lake George Wilderness in Fort Ann was spectacular. A wide carriage trail led to a spectacular waterfall, then descended to the shores to a sheltered bay on the east side of Lake George. What a delightful place to sit on a warm day, under the white and red pines of Sheltered Rock Bay. I wished I'd had a picnic and a good book with me.

I must confess it took me forever to find this unmarked trail. The guide I had took liberties with the English language--very confusing directions. Eventually, after much driving and hiking down dead ends, I found it, and it was well worth the frustration. Still, it's a very long drive from the village of Lake George and is not for everyone.

Can you believe I still haven't forced myself to sit down with my new camera's manual? As a result I have to rely on this photo of Lake George taken from the top of Buck Mountain, which is in the general area where I hiked yesterday.

From Mosses to Lake George

Last week my favorite Adirondack naturalist called me and asked if I'd like to go on a moss exploration. Would I! I nearly leapt out of my chair. She has been studying mosses and clubmosses for years and I'm eager to know more, mostly because it is so difficult to learn the names of mosses and to get information about mosses in the Northeast. There is no "Field Guide of Mosses" for the East, for instance, so what's a naturalist to do?

Evelyn invited another botanist to come along, so I had the benefit of two experts' instruction. Learning to use a hand lens was so interesting. I own four of them, and now I'll be able to give my clients a microscopic view of the moss world. I learned a tremendous amount, and not only from the direct teaching. It was lots of fun to see them interact and come to a meeting of the minds on moss and liverwort identification.

The ridge was an interesting habitat, primarily red pine with a bit of white pine mixed in, not at all the habitat that I'm accustomed to in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Not alot of vegetation, but plenty of moss. And some great views of the Mill Creek Valley.

Today found me exploring trails near Lake George. I climbed Pilot Knob Ridge, which is land owned by the Lake George Land Conservancy, a wonderful group doing all it can to preserve land in an area that is overwhelmed by privately owned land. From the top of Pilot Knob Ridge, there's a gorgeous view of Lake George, Crane Mountain, Gore Mountain, and a few of the High Peaks. Incredible!

May always finds me scrambling to squeeze everything I need and want to do at this time of year into one short month. The biggest push me--pull me is dividing my "leisure" time between nature activities and the garden. Birding and wildflower hiking is never better than in May, which is exactly the time I need to be tending my seedling farm and preparing the deck garden for all the vegetables and fruit plants that will grow in containers there.

This year I'm going to attempt to grow Tristar strawberries, an everbearing variety, in a large half-wine barrel given to me by neighbors who spend most of their year living in Long Island next to a large commercial vineyard. It's supposed to be easy to grow strawberries?? Our fields are also chock full of wild strawberries. Last June they were on the verge of perfection when seven inches of rain fell. When the deluge ended, I went out in mud boots and discovered they had all turned to a bland strawberry mush!

My Concord grapes did not come through the winter too well. The loads of April snow from two huge snowstorms came tumbling off our metal roof and not only sheared our second-floor balcony off the house but also crashed our fledgling grape arbor. Fortunately the arbor was new and didn't involve the loss of vines in their prime. Now we know where not to put the arbor.

New blueberry plants are coming any day now as well. Then there's all the squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers I'm growing in the furnace room under lights. And Ken and I are planning other outdoor yard and garden improvements, though we won't be planting anything other than what's on the deck. Who can beat the incredible display of wildflowers that bloom in our fields from June until October? All my gardening effort goes into food production and I let Mother Nature provide the flower show.

And how do you manage everything there is to do outdoors in May... and get your regular work done? If you have strategies, please share them by posting a comment.

News Flash: Sunny, warm weather for This Weekend's Birding Safaris!!
Early Spring Migrants Hikes: Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6 9am-2pm

Yesterday's high winds have made a huge impact on drying the trails. I'm so glad--That means it's time to hike into the really wild places in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. The mountains need some more time to dry out, but I'll be climbing soon. Sunny, warm weather will rush this process, and we're due for this weather later this week and through the weekend.

Painted Trillium
I am so yearning to see wildflowers. I haven't spotted a single one yet, but they'll be appearing with the warm weather coming. Trout lilies, yellow wood violets, and red and painted trillium will brighten the woods still covered with last fall's leaves. It's time to pack my watercolor pencils and my nature journal and do some journaling.