Summer Spectacular

Summer brings some luscious wildflowers to stir our senses.  Here are three that captivate me.  First are the Pink Lady's Slippers.   There is wild, and there is a level above that, that this flower reaches.  It has so far refused to reveal its secrets to human cultivation.  So, finding them in a woodland is so special, that I resist sharing their locations once I find them.  Sadly, the whitetail deer eat them, and I've seen some disappear as a result.

Here is a small bunch I visited a few weeks ago.

There are actually twelve in this photo, so it is a very special location.

Sometimes I see these as group portraits. 

Looking at a single individual,  I see the purest beauty in the world.  Occasionally, a soft light filters through the trees making the flower golden.  Wow!

Another summer delight is the Wild Blue Flag.  While the above Pink Lady's Slippers prefer upland forests, this plant thrives in ponds and bogs.

It sometimes has a companion plant that is as rare as the Pink Lady's Slipper.  It is treated as the royalty of wild orchids in North America.  Feast on the sight of a Showy Lady's Slipper.

Just as is the case for the Pink LS, the Showy holds secrets that have eluded human cultivation.  It seems  mystical to see them.

All of the above take me away from home, so I do need something a bit easier to enjoy.  Today, in my backyard, I was treated to the first bloom of an Opium Poppy. 

This poppy is the opposite of the above orchids.  I just toss the seeds in bare ground, rake and let the rains take care of the rest.  Still, I love seeing them each morning.  I am surprised that the deer don't find them tasty.

I hope you have your own summer flowers to see each day.

Paul Schmitt

Watching in Awe- A Potpourri of Birds

A major goal of my bird photography is sharing examples of why I am in awe of the bird world. It begins with their amazing displays of ornamentation.  This facilitates breeding selection and extends into adaptation.  Not all birds follow ornamentation.  Some take a different path, wherein dark feathers contain melanin which makes the feathers stronger to resist wear.  It seems to me that each successful bird species finds a niche where it avoids direct competition with similar species. If there is direct competition between two similar species, one will adapt better and dominate.  For example, the different woodpeckers in our woods each have a different feeding sector or food preference in the forest.  The Downy does not compete with the Pileated Woodpecker.

Let's begin with a simple example of the Red-breasted Merganser.  It is quite different from the larger male Common Merganser seen at right.  In June, this bird is still in its breeding plumage. 

Enter the smaller Red-breasted Merganser seen below.  First, he has already molted and his iridescent green head is gone. He's now a reddish color. He molted two months before the Common Merganser.  Also, while the Common Merganser dives as deep as 100 feet in large lakes and river, the smaller merganser frequents very shallow water. I observed this reddish merganser picking snails off the cattail stalks.

Similar species, but they are successful in different habitats. Now that I have found this bird's breeding area, I hope to get its photo in breeding colors. Breeding is over, and this boy was silent and red.

Now, let's go to the tuxedo bird.  Some have suggested that the Bobolink looks like he put his tuxedo on backwards.  I was fortunate to capture this male in flight.

I think he looks like a professor in academic robes - pale yellow cap and fringed puffy shirt with a black robe beneath. Breeding was just beginning, so this Bobolink was very vocal.  It's a beautiful song.

I've been following a particular Osprey pair for several years. In the first year, the male had a tough time getting a female to look at his nest.  He called at every large bird that passed hoping it was a female Osprey.  Now, they are bonded and get down to business quickly. Two small chicks are in the nest, and the male has begun his regular fishing for them. I have a good view of their nest right at my eye level. Here comes the male with a fresh catch.

It's pretty easy to tell which is the male. First, he is notably smaller. Since he is diving into the water  for each catch, his feathers are cleaner than the female who spends long hours at the nest.  When the chicks get close to fledging, she will join in fishing to match the chicks huge appetite.

At this early stage, the chicks are small and their heads are barely visible - usually only seen when being fed as shown below.

The male won't stay long at the nest. He'll be back fishing soon. Note the bunch of bedding to the right on the nest. It looks like fibers from cornstalks to me.

This COVID-19 pandemic has closed a lot of parks and some favorite natural areas. One of my best locations just opened recently, any only for only three days a week. In the absence of visitors, a Red-tail Hawk has taken residence in the park's pavilion and the adjacent camper-cabin area.  There is staff working there on renovations, so the bird has become a bit habituated to small numbers of people.  I've been able to get close to the bird by being patient and not directly approaching it. Today, this paid off for me.  I was only 100 feet away.

I am guessing the hawk has been very successful here.  I only saw two squirrels and no chipmunks in the area.  She is pretty good at picking concealed places, such as this gnarled pine tree.

Note how well her body coloration blends in with the tree branches.  Both male and female share this coloration which supports hunting success.  It works. When I arrived two days ago, I knew she was in the area but could not spot her. Thirty minutes later I returned to my car, and she flew out of the tree across from my car.  I had looked there initially, and I can only gain respect for her ability to stay hidden.

There is a similar story for the warbles, and I hope to have the patience to find the subjects to fill in the narrative.

Kind regards,

Paul