May 29, 2008

Flowers and a Whip-poor-will

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


Carolina Wren


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


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