Lily Love

My lilies are starting to bloom.  I LOVE lilies!

 

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I Love Lupine

 I love lupine and I have been trying for years to grow it. It just should not be that hard to grow because I see it growing wild in the road ditches.

This is my 3 year for this plant and the first year it bloomed. I have 2 other plants. One of the other ones is ready to bloom and the flower is a different color. I can’t wait to see what color it will be. The third plant looks like it is not going to bloom this year.

The name of the genus, Lupinus, comes from the Latin word for wolf, lupus. People used to believe the plant “wolfed up” soil nutrients. Turns out that it actually adds nitrogen to the soil through the work of bacteria on its root nodes. Farmers use it as a cover crop to increase field nitrogen levels.

Have you ever seen the Karner Blue Butterfly? It is a gorgeous butterfly. Karner Blues have been on the federal endangered species list since 1992. The only host plant for Karner Blue caterpillars, the wild blue lupine (Lupinus perennis), is declining in numbers, and the population of Karner Blues is declining with them.

Blue lupine leaves are a necessary food source for the caterpillars of the endangered Karner blue butterfly. Named by author Vladimir Nabokov, this insect hatches from eggs laid the previous year on the host plants. After their springtime emergence, they turn into short-lived butterflies that deposit eggs on blue lupines to produce the second generation of the season, according to The Nature Conservancy. These summertime butterflies are the ones that lay the overwintering eggs. To help the Karner blues recover, conservationists are restoring blue lupine habitats.

Here are two great articles about these Karner Blue Butterfly.  

Save the Karner Blue Butterfly

Facts About the Karner Blue Butterfly

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Brown-headed Cowbird

This is the first time I have seen a Brown-headed Cowbird at my feeders, therefore I wanted to learn more about them.

The Brown-headed Cowbird has a fascinating approach to raising its young. Females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks. Once a Cowbird locates the nest, she usually waits until the host has laid two or more eggs, but before incubation begins. She generally removes one egg or more the day she lays her egg in the nest, or sometimes before. She only lays one egg in a nest. Cowbirds have been known to lay eggs in the nests of some 220 other species. About 20% of these nests are of Eastern Phoebe, 25% of Carolina Wren, and 40% of Song Sparrow nests. Since they raised by other species, they do not learn how to behave like a Cowbird from their forest parents. It appears this information is genetic. Therefore, a Cowbird knows its own song and calls, and recognizes and mates with its own species, despite having never encountered another of its own kind before.

Although I am totally fascinated by these birds, I hope I don’t see them at my feeders again.

Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out these other great blogs at A Southern Daydreamer.

A few photos of my backyard friends

Today is Outdoor Wednesday.  Please check out these other great blogs at A Southern Daydreamer.

A few of my backyard friends

This is a window feeder.  I just love it!

Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here. Thanks to Susan at a Southern Daydreamer.

Double Trouble

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Baby House Finches

The nest of the house finch was made in a hanging petunia basket.

My friend, Tami, had a hard time watering this hanging basket. Her sweet nieces just loved the quick peek at the nest.

These babies are about to leave the nest.

Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here. Thanks to Susan at a Southern Daydreamer.

Some fun shots taken this week.

Double Columbine

Yellow Columbine

Perennial Geranium

Prairie Smoke

Baby Chickadees

Male Baltimore Oriole

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Backyard friends

Just a few of the birds that have showed up in my backyard.

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Just a few of my favorite shots of the week

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Stay Warm

I am not a big fan of the squirrels, but this time of year it is hard not to feel sorry for them.

Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here. Thanks to Susan at a Southern Daydreamer.

Just hanging out with friends

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Back to the birds

My garden is put to bed for another season.  Now I have time for the birds.  My second favorite thing to do.  Here are a few photos from Sunday.  What a gorgeous day!

I love this tree!

This flowering crabapple tree was in our back yard when we moved here 17 years ago.  It is hard to believe we have lived here 17 years.  Time goes way too fast. 

I just love this tree. In the spring it is covered in beautiful blossoms and gets these wonderful berries that stay on the branches all winter.  The birds and squirrels just love them.

Well this fall we had a major sewer project in our small town. Everyone was required to be hooked up to “city” sewer. This meant no more mound systems or septic tanks.

With is project came loss of gardens. It also meant loss of our grass that we had looking pretty nice. My back yard is such a mess it makes me sick to look at it. Hope to make it into something better next spring.

This brings me back to this tree that I love.  They wanted to cut it down.  I just couldn’t let them do it.  It would take too long to get another tree this size.  I got my way.  They left the tree.  It took a beating, but I think it will live.  A couple branches are splitting where it was hit by the machines.  I will have to remove them, but I think it will be okay.  Yeah!

These photos were taken on Sunday.  I just couldn’t believe all the Robins in our yard.  I counted 18 of them in the tree and on the ground in the back yard.  Some of the berries fell to the ground when the contractors where working around the tree.

Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here.   Thanks to Susan at a Southern Daydreamer.

Sunrise

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed. - Walt Whitman

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FT. Lake Johanna & Iverson Cabin

It is really starting to look like fall here.  I just love it when the colors start changing.  My brother, Jer, and I stopped here on our way to an auction.  It was so pretty I just had to stop and take some photos.

My girlfriend, Rose, and I stopped here in March to see that post click here.  It is fun to the changes in the season.

Today is Outdoor Wednesday. Please check out the others here. Thanks to Susan at a Southern Daydreamer.