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Poem: "The Flying Jewels of Spring"
May. 14th, 2024 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithI 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.
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Photos: Cicadas
May. 14th, 2024 11:36 pmysabetwordsmithCicadas 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."
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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... )
Photos: Prairie Garden and Ritual Meadow
May. 2nd, 2024 10:57 pmysabetwordsmithThese photos are from yesterday in my yard. This batch is mostly from the prairie garden and ritual meadow.
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Bunches of Blooms
May. 15th, 2022 12:01 pmyourlibrarian
To celebrate the final day of
3weeksfordreamwidth, a variety of blooms from around our neighborhood taken over the last few weeks. ( Read more... )Mating swans
Apr. 26th, 2022 06:22 amnanila
Eldest and I were just finishing a walk on the towpath when we spotted a pair of swans doing a slow dance in the section of canal next to our house.
We watched them for a while and then it appeared they were finished, so we put the camera down and moved closer. We were a little shocked when the male jumped on top of the female, hence why some of the photos under the cut are a little blurry, as above!
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Bleeding heart flowers
May. 6th, 2015 10:47 amnanila
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I always wanted one of these in my garden, and it finally occurred to me to plant one last month. It's in bloom now and seeing it every day makes me happy.
nanila
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My wildlife identification skills don't extend beyond, "Ooh, pretty!", when it comes to beetles. This attractively burnished specimen landed on me whilst I was working in the garden today.
Wood pigeon
Apr. 28th, 2015 08:14 pmnanila
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This wood pigeon landed above the baby and me as we lounged under the cherry tree, apparently for the purpose of giving us some fairly serious side-eye.
Angle shades moth caterpillar
Apr. 27th, 2015 01:20 pmnanila
I was weeding the garden the other day and disturbed this electric green caterpillar, which I think will eventually become an angle shades moth, assuming it likes its new location under a large aquilegia plant!
Orange tip butterfly
Apr. 23rd, 2015 08:50 pmnanila
There are at least two orange tips battling it out for ownership of our garden. I hardly ever see them settle because they're always sparring, so catching one perched fleetingly on an iris leaf was a rare pleasure.
Starlings on the fat ball feeder
Mar. 31st, 2015 08:56 pmnanila
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These are the first starlings we've seen in our garden this year and I was lucky enough to catch them on the fat ball feeder on a sunny (if very windy) morning.
Jay in the cherry tree
Mar. 30th, 2015 08:50 pmnanila
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Our tree is begrudgingly conceding that it might be spring in the northern hemisphere, and the jay is gently corroborating with particularly plush plumage.
