Today was one of the first days I’ve actually spent some time at home. While the morning was filled with work, the afternoon consisted of digging up some wildflowers and replanting them. A friend was removing excess plants at her house in Hollidaysburg and offered me some great plants. We dug up some purple cone flower, bee balm, feverfew, turtlehead, and yarrow. I started some of these species from seed, but they are so small (< .5 inches) that I don’t think they’ll make it. The rootstock of these transplants should do well. I placed them strategically in the yard with the idea that they will be the start of a meadow full of wildflowers.
The past month has been rainy and cooler than expected. I tried to plant a small garden in what I thought was a high spot in the yard, but the soil remained saturated with water until the past few days. I scattered some wildflower seed there, but I think that area will need to be planted with wet-loving plants. I’ll gather some seeds from cardinal flower, joe pye weed, and ironweed this summer after I get some advice from a friend who knows more about wetlands than I do.
A short walk this evening yielded two deer and a distant calling whip-poor-will. The diversity of birds on and around the house is amazing. I’m including birds seen within a half mile of the place over the past three months.
| SPECIES | | SPECIES | | SPECIES |
| Canada Goose | | Blue-headed Vireo | | Yellow Warbler |
| Wood Duck | | Red-eyed Vireo | | Ovenbird |
| Mallard | | Blue Jay | | Common Yellowthroat |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | | American Crow | | Eastern Towhee |
| Great Blue Heron | | Tree Swallow | | Chipping Sparrow |
| Turkey Vulture | | N. Rough-winged Swallow | | Field Sparrow |
| Red-tailed Hawk | | Barn Swallow | | Song Sparrow |
| American Kestrel | | Black-capped Chickadee | | White-throated Sparrow |
| Killdeer | | Tufted Titmouse | | Dark-eyed Junco |
| American Woodcock | | White-breasted Nuthatch | | Northern Cardinal |
| Mourning Dove | | Brown Creeper | | Indigo Bunting |
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo | | | | Red-winged Blackbird |
| Whip-poor-will | | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | | Eastern Meadowlark |
| Chimney Swift | | Eastern Bluebird | | Common Grackle |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird | | American Robin | | Brown-headed Cowbird |
| Belted Kingfisher | | Gray Catbird | | Baltimore Oriole |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | | Northern Mockingbird | | Purple Finch |
| Yellow-bellied Flycatcher | | Brown Thrasher | | House Finch |
| Eastern Phoebe | | European Starling | | American Goldfinch |
| Great Crested Flycatcher | | Cedar Waxwing | | House Sparrow |
| | ||||
