Spring's Resolve Bluebirds and Tree Swallows

Property disputes between bluebirds and tree swallows, and tree swallows and tree swallows seem to be resolved by now and life is very busy with serious nesting preparations here at Flower Hill Farm. 

Today I took my first butterfly photo of 2014 — caught a whisper of light in a Cabbage White while she rested between sips of daffodil nectar. I invite you to scroll through to see the animated birds and a honeybee too. 

Migratory songbirds are showing up daily to claim their territory. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet is displaying his crown while very near the ground. I fear for the hundreds of sleeping pupa and caterpillars hoping for a season to spread their gowns. But I am happy to see these familiar bird friends return.

Everyday, new Iris reticulata stems are breaking earth and pushing their way through last years detritus spreading petals of blues and purples across the garden floor. 

Meanwhile, I am working at the computer most days into nights and often into nearly dawns trying to finish my new website. Gathering and resizing then grouping years of photos of wildlife and gardens, skies and landscapes all arranged on pages that hold this place in pixels. Flower Hill Farm and all her beasties are being catalogued and soon will be presented on my new site caroldukeflowers.com. 

I will be back here a few more times to invite you to visit. 

Early Spring 'Star' Magnolia Stellata

Magnolia stellata's primitive multi-petaled, milk-white and blush-striped blooms are the first flowers to fully unfurl within our garden shrubberies. Eighteen petals fall free of their furry calyx, multiplied by hundreds, to paint this small tree brightly. She stands along our second terraced garden stretching easterly amongst sentient statues of Apples and Birch yet to exhale their buds at the time these photographs were taken. A gift of Peace from Japan to the United States, Magnolia stellata's tiny white flags quietly wave with the wind and her presence on our hillside offers a placid passage from the snowy chill of winter into the riot of warmer colors to come when spring's breath covers the landscape. I love to sit beneath the many stars and look towards the other trees nearby.

Grey Birch and one of the Apples of our 'Gateway' in the blueberry fields. 

Our oldest Apple above and below.

A Shag-bark Hickory stands in the upper garden. 

Tree Swallow calls, songs and duets fill the early spring sky with grace and gurgling as females wrangle.

Looking up from the blueberry field, where within the heath this day . . . I eyed an Eastern Pine Elfin.

 To the left before the 'Star' Magnolia, one of the Apples of the 'Gateway' stands and the other is featured below with stellata blossoms in the background.

A one-hundred year old Apple is dwarfed by the two-hundred year old Rock Maples.

Another Apple in the rock garden near a smaller stellata seems diminished by the giants.

Crown of Apple, Rock Maple and stellata merge into pink weeping cherry.

Tree Swallow couple's favorite cherry branch perch.

When the Magnolia stellata is fully blown open . . .  other buds begin bursting too. 

Still needing more pruning, the 'bonsai' Apple spreads over the large boulders of the old rock garden.

Spring is filled with song and alarm calls from hundreds of birds. I noted this robin's frightful clamor and took camera and self out to see what was the matter. 

Going towards the direction it was eyeing I found the reason for its piercing notes. It is always good to listen and watch what goes on in our gardens.

A Broad-winged Hawk perching high up in one of the Rock Maples. 

A buteo who fancies small mammals (most welcome to our voles and rabbits!) and birds is a just cause for fright from a robin.

Times seems to fly by so quickly these days . . . spring is in full dress here now and next I will share the Apples all abloom. 

I took a break from my gardens and went to the ocean for a week repose and when I returned hundreds of birds had returned too . . .  only instead of my being here to greet their return they wondered at mine. I felt lost for a bit but back on track and will not make the same mistake of going away at such a magical time again. I must learn how to simply relax here in my own realm. Sound familiar? 

Flower Hill Farm Butterflies of 2012 ~ Eastern Tailed-Blue and Summer Azure

Flower Hill Farm Butterflies of 2012 continues with two little Blues of the Gossamer-wings family. Last year in July, I had an exciting first capture of an Eastern Tailed-Blue Everes comyntas, which I spotted along the edge of the south field. A bit smaller than the Summer Azure, these small beauties are also considered common throughout most of the eastern half of North America. 

The Eastern Tailed-Blue has three flights beginning around the middle of May through the first part of June, then the middle of July till the end of July and mid August through to late September. To make identification confusing each brood may look somewhat different. A tell tale sign of the Eastern Tailed-Blue is the orange eyespot like markings on the bottom hindwings and the tiny thread like tails, though as with the one captured here those may disappear with time. They are such beautiful little butterflies. I so wish the wings were fully open to illustrate the gorgeous blue but a peek shows a bit of the color that seems to vary between broods and sexes.

In between these flight stages would be the time to search out the single eggs and dark green caterpillars on buds and stalks of clovers (if the rabbits leave me any) and various legumes. Here at Flower Hill Farm the little blues might enjoy the vetches growing in the airy north and south fields and perhaps I might find caterpillars along the forest edge.

Eastern Tailed-Blues overwinter in their caterpillar stage.

Summer Spring Azure Celastrina ladon, is perhaps the most confusing butterfly I have ever tried to identify. Thanks to Joe from the Massachusetts Butterfly Group on Facebook, I think I have it right. The sighting of this tiny 3/4 - 1 1/4 blue was just outside our little studio last August. This makes it a summer form of the Spring Azure, if I understand correctly. The Azure is considered common and flies from early spring up to early September throughout much of the United States.

A great diversity of plants and shrubs serve as hosts for the larva that resembles a slug, including cherry, blueberries, maple, dogwood, viburnum, oak, lupine and more and more. It is a wonder since Flower Hill Farm has all of these and many more of the other listed host plants and trees that I have never seen this butterfly here before. I can only assume the birds are incredibly fastidious in searching out the caterpillars and then the butterflies, or I have just not been in the right place at the right time.

The butterflies also choose from a variety of flowers. Males congregate along streams and puddles and will sample excrement and carrion. Azures prefer fields with shrubs to an open airy field, so I now know to look more in the blueberry fields when they begin to flower, for the caterpillars prefer flowers to leaves. Right now the chrysalis forms is in hiding perhaps below the blueberry bushes in the photographs below. Azure butterflies only live for a few days, beginning courtship and then laying eggs very soon after emerging from their yellow-brown chrysalis.

Within  the blueberry field above and below, Azure chrysalises may be safely awaiting the unfurling of buds.

The little caterpillars of the Eastern Tailed-Blue will have to remain hidden from the sharp eyes of the Bluebirds. 

It is truly overwhelming to imagine all the hidden life within these fields . . . section of north field above and south field below . . . both will be filled with wildflowers in a months time.

The returning Tree Swallows fill the sky with fluid dance, songs and champagne like gurgles. 

Their presence in the gardens and sky above is pure delight and they eat hundreds of biting insects each day.

I hope there will be plenty of food for the birds and that many of these precious blues will survive to fly about the wildflower and blueberry fields later this spring.

Our temps have dipped back down into the 30's with some sleet and snow showers promised in a day. Though I love the warmth, I would rather have these colder spring days than suddenly having summer upon us. We had a couple of days in the 70's this past week and the heat makes all the new emerging life move too quickly. I so love a slow spring after a long winter, one that allows us to pause and celebrate renewal . . . and now I have a bit more time to catch up with last years butterflies!

Waxing and Waning ~ The World Around Us ~ Bluebird Broods

There is plenty of spinning, tilting and turning in our vast universe . . . as our world wobbles its way around the sun and our moon waxes and wanes . . . mirroring that center fiery sphere . . . while it sails along its own path marking our monthly ways. Luminosity of a celestial entity casting softness and shadows over a mostly sleeping landscape is quite calming though connected to lunacy. I am puzzled at how wildlife sleeps through all the brightness and it seems those that are preyed upon are more vulnerable. 

Wandering around the light filled night, I find the gardens, fields and forest mysterious and completely a different feeling from that of the daylight world I know so well. Forms stand out more boldly and imagining the numerous nests within the leafy and sometimes flowering branches . . .  I pause and quietly step between the two realms. I am not alone placidly pacing about the moonlit gardens, however. 

Growls penetrate my peace and they are meant for me . . . not the Wild Turkeys balancing in the hemlock or pines above . . . wings ruffling and rubbing against the boughs. Moving black forms are not shrubberies . . . but coyote and bear step before or after my footprints . . . creating quite a chill. A loud clap and stomp from me continues to send those unwelcome yet thrilling forms furtively further into the deeper darkness.

Just before dawn these days, the waning moon is still casting a milky film across the land from its western departure. Towards the east earlier risers may see the stunning show of Venus and Jupiter rising just before the symphony of birdsong begins. 

Each morning brings renewed sipping and dipping activity about the birdbath, though I have yet to capture the many birds who visit here. I am faithful in cleaning and refreshing the basin each day.

Sunlight casts its own magic. 

While walking about in the daylight hours . . .  the gardens today . . .  along with the Bluebirds busyness caring for their second brood . . . offer entertainment and wonder. The Bluebirds have no difficulty beginning this brood . . . but things were not so peaceful earlier in the spring when they began their first . . . 

What is wrong with this picture?

Tree Swallows do not make much fuss really . . . they tend to choose a nestbox out in the north and south fields to raise their young, but there is always temptation. I never see any real jousting between the two . . . the bluebirds do always win with the Tree Swallows.

There are more serious battles between male Bluebirds and it is hard to determine who is who. I would guess the female knows better. 

Things do calm down in April and the male and female Bluebird become very attentive to their young, always eyeing for the many insects about the shrubs and trees and along the garden floor.

Woe to the caterpillars that will never become moths or butterflies. 

Instead of nibbling, flying, flitting and ferreting about the gardens . . .  copious amounts of insects and arachnids build fine fledglings. These two Bluebirds fledglings stay near their former home. The mother Bluebird is inside the nestbox. 

Off to forage.

The parents have ceased to feed the fledglings and come back to their nest box with an incredible array of fresh morsels for their helpless nestlings.

I can now hear the nestlings crying out when the parents light on the nestbox. I hope this time to see the little ones peeking out from the round window and do marvel at what it must be like for them to see the world for the first time . . . beyond their tiny world within the box.