common_nature | Entries tagged with season: spring

Taken 4 March 2025 at 16:42 Eastern Standard Time, in the alley behind my apartment complex in full daylight. The adjacent utility pole (a sliver of the line is visible in the upper left corner) is probably the reason the tree was felled.

This one is a study in complex crunchy textures and value and hue variations of grey and gray. (Though extremely muted, it’s not achromatic, being mottled with the faintest tinges of yellow, brown, and green:

Current Music: ”The Beauty of Gray”-Live.

full_metal_ox

4 March 2025, 13:43 U.S. Eastern Standard Time. This guy, about a foot/30 cm long before figuring in the tail, was sprawled out basking on the walkway leading to the apartment dumpsters; the maintenance crew had come through shortly before, perhaps flushing him from cover:

Once more, apologies for the limitations of my equipment. Even after applying an intensifying filter, the photo does this iguana’s coloring nothing near justice: I’m talking road-cone orange spines and neon-red underarms. Somebody seems to be looking for love.

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Music: “Chuncho” by Yma Sumac

ysabetwordsmith

These pictures are from Sunday, but it's after midnight so the timestamp will say Monday. See the savanna and house yard.

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

ysabetwordsmith

The first flower is blooming here at Fieldhaven! :D

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

turlough

Was suprised to see the first Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) by a house wall this morning. While it hasn't been really cold, it hasn't been particularly warm either, and I haven't seen any anywhere else. This is a rather sheltered, southward facing spot though and I suspect the house (it's quite old) isn't very well insulated.

Click to enlarge:

tiny white drop-shaped flowers against a grey wall

Current Mood: surprised

emeraldarrows

This little guy was spotted in my backyard a couple times earlier this year.

( one more and a flower )

weird

Today my dog found a squab on the ground (the dog was v respectful and did not harm or scare the bird). He looked as if he had recently been evicted from the nest and was just getting his bearings. He was perched on the wheel of a wheelie bin looking utterly bewildered. He had a Mohawk of yellowish baby feathers! It took him a little while but eventually he realised he had wings and flew away to join his fellow pigeons.

(click for bigger—my first time trying this!!)

turlough

I usually only see Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) in our stream in late Winter/early Spring. This year one of the pairs looks to have nested here too because earlier this week I saw this mum with her three tiny babies.

Click to enlarge:

brown bird with three brown-and-white babies on the water

Current Mood: peaceful

pauraque

It's the season for goslings! This pair of Canada Geese I saw foraging at the side of a dirt road had five.

( Read more... )

pauraque

I went for a walk before work this morning and spotted a Blue-headed Vireo sitting on a nest in a wooded area of the park.

small bird with a blue-gray head and light eyering sits on a cup-shaped nest in the fork of a sapling

small bird with a blue-gray head and light eyering sits on a cup-shaped nest in the fork of a sapling

Not the greatest photo in the world as I didn't want to get too close and scare him or her (males and females look alike and both will incubate the eggs, so I couldn't tell the sex of this bird) but it was such a cool sight, I had to share.

turlough

Until just a couple of years ago I wasn't aware we even had Collared Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) in Sweden but since then I've learned they started to appear here in the late 40s and can now be found in many cities and towns in the southern half of the country. Apparently also in my little town and on my walk earlier today I managed to get this really nice photo of one of them:

Click to enlarge:

Current Mood: mellow

pauraque

I ran into this lady while hiking today.

side view of deer, captured mid-chew, looking at cameraperson in the woods

( And she had a friend )

ysabetwordsmith

I wrote this about today's cicada hatch. It fills the "chase" square in my 5-1-24 card for the Superhero Bingo Fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

ysabetwordsmith

Cicadas are hatching! I've seen a few hatch earlier, but this morning after the rain there are lots of them. The biggest concentration is around the forest garden and edges of the patio. :D These are red-eyed cicadas, technically periodical cicadas. Their carapaces are almost hard, their wings fully extended but still too soft to fly. It's a feast for everything that eats insects. Humans can eat them too. (I'm not planning to try that.) Usually what we get here are various types of the larger green cicadas, like the dog-day cicadas.

For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.

See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

blackcatofmisery

I love spring, because garden centers open, and that means pollinators. I saw a butterfly going about in a greenhouse and finally tracked it down—taking a picture every couple of seconds, so I looked like a creep, I'm sure—on a hanging planter. I believe it's an American lady (Vanessa virginiensis), judging by the two eyespots and bit of pink.

( Photos beneath the cut. )

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Jace Everett - Bad Thigns

ysabetwordsmith

These photos are mostly from the savanna and prairie garden.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

ysabetwordsmith

These photos are from yesterday in my yard. This batch is mostly from the prairie garden and ritual meadow.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

turlough

We've had quite a chilly spring here in South-Eastern Sweden but it's finally started getting warmer. On my walk this afternoon I saw SO MANY Wood Anemones (Anemone nemorosa):

Click to enlarge:

( More photos... )

Current Mood: good

pauraque

I spotted this pair of Common Mergansers (also called Goosander in Europe) on the river yesterday. I was up on a bridge and I don't think they realized I was there, so I got some lovely close looks as they swam by.

The male has a mostly white body with a black back and a very dark green head which can look black depending on lighting. The female is gray with a pale breast and a reddish-brown head featuring a shaggy punk hairstyle. Both have a narrow red bill, used to poke around in the sediment when they dive underwater for prey.

( another photo )

ysabetwordsmith

These are more pictures from April 13 that I didn't have time to post then.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

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Common Nature

wonder and joy and mystery in everyday things

Entries tagged with season: spring

(Palm?) stump with black shelf fungi.

A National Geographic animal held still for me today.

Photos: House Yard and South Lot

First Flower

early snowdrops

From this Spring

A squab!

goldeneye with ducklings

Canada Geese and goslings

Blue-headed Vireo nesting

collared dove

White-tailed Deer

Poem: "The Flying Jewels of Spring"

Photos: Cicadas

An American lady

Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden

Photos: Prairie Garden and Ritual Meadow

spring flowers

Common Mergansers

Photos: Spiders and Vulture

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June 2025

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