Late Summer Sunrise

I noticed there was an unusual layer of fog hovering right above the ground this morning.

It was sheer enough that I could just see the horse feeding out in the pasture.

But what really caught my eye was the brilliant sunbeams flowing through the Live Oak.

Up close, the scene looked more like an abstract painting than an actual photo. 

 The brilliance of the sunbeams were amazing. It looks like the tree and ground are on fire. 

What a majestic and wondrous sight!

Harvest Moon

What a beautiful full moon we've had the last couple of nights. The Harvest Moon is definitely larger and brighter than other full moons. Even at 6:45 am it was still shining bright over the lake. I was lucky enough to catch the "Blue Hour" in my photo. If you're not familiar with the "Blue Hour" . . . click here for more information. It's always fun to try and capture the "Blue Hour" in dusk and dawn photos.

All Decked out in Yellow

Red may be the color of Christmas ~ ~ but the Christmas Senna is all decked out in yellow.

Every year I eagerly anticipate seeing this LARGE shrub covered in these sunny yellow flowers.

 I'm apparently not the only one who loves this plant and its pretty flowers. For weeks bees have been hovering all around it, 

as well as wasps...

The creatures I planted this bush for ~ ~ the Cloudless Sulphur butterflies ~ ~ are showing up in abundance, too.

Turning a bright yellow as they munch away on the flowerbuds.

Who thought they would love the taste of the flowers! ??????

See what I mean.

They definitely reduce the amount of flowers, but that's okay since I planted the bush for them, and 

I'll reap the rewards by having an abundance of these beautiful yellow butterflies in my garden.

We found a number of these caterpillars spinning their crysalis on a nearby Sabal palm. How in the world do they travel 10 feet down the yard and then another 5 feet up the palm tree? Another one of nature's mysteries.

Naturally Pretty

A weed...yes, that is what most people would call this flower...a weed!

I don't know about you but this dainty, adorable little yellow flower is a welcome "native" and one of many that can be found growing and blooming...along with other pretty little natives...in a meadow area (that is about an acre in size) on our property. Every spring we let the grass grow and soon the "natives" show up in all their splendor. 

In pretty pastel yellows...

And spunky little white frilly-edged, tiny flowers with yellow pincushion centers. Talk about sweet...the Southern fleabane is oh, so sweet looking!

The butterflies really love the pinkish red blooms of Tasselflower...so much so, that I leave them in flowerbeds  around my home when they turn up.

Delicate bluish-purple wild Carolina petunias pop up everywhere. See the little insect on the upper right petal...he blends in so nicely. One of the marvels of nature.

 Morning glories with blush shaded edges weave their way through the grasss attracting insects to its sweet pollen...

Here's a photo later in the day when the purple shading is at its best...

And, blue spiderwort that thrives in wet or dry ground. All of these plants are self-sufficient...only depending on the water provided by Mother Nature...

The aptly named Spanish Needles form nice colonies of white daisy-like flowers...

And, all are loved by pollinators of all kinds...

I believe it was Emerson who said, "A weed is merely a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." Well, this Gray Hairstreak has certainly discovered the virtues of Southern fleabane.

Tall stalks of beautiful red-veined yellow orchid-like flowers are most welcome. I never pull these up...letting them go to seed, so they'll return the next spring...

And, pretty golden-colored native grasses glow in the sunlight and move in tandem with the breeze...

A garden of a different sort...one touched only by the hand of nature.

It's naturally pretty!

The Amazing World of Nature

What do you get when you cross this flower

with this flower?

Voila' ... a new Indian blanket flower!

Isn't nature amazing?

I've been thinking for awhile that my blanket flowers were cross-pollinating because subtle but different variations seem to show up next to each other. This weekend a new plant that seeded itself bloomed, and my suspicians were confirmed. Gaillardia blanket flower Torch ‘Red Ember’ (upper right corner) mixed with 'Goblin’ (lower right corner).

Have you've noticed cross-pollination at work in your garden?

Early Morning Discoveries

I headed out into the garden early this weekend in an effort to control some weeds with a weed killer spray. I wish I could garden 100% organically, but my new garden is large (a couple of acres) and without the help of an unnamed weed killer, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the steady onslaught of weeds.

When you walk slowly and look down, it's amazing what you'll discover. As I briefly lifted my head, and looked out over my wildlife area the unusual flower of the Dutchman's Pipevine caught my eye. I can't really say it's beautiful but it is indeed, eye-catching.

I planted this vine along a fence in the hopes of attracting pipevine swallowtails to my garden. Here's a photo of both the open flower and a couple of other buds that will soon open. The flowerbuds look like small pipes, and I'm going out on a limb here to say that's probably where its name comes from. Definitely, very strange and other-worldly looking. I'm definitely glad I didn't miss these blooms. Next, was an unusual looking bee. Instead of a yellow and black bumble bee, this bee is black with white sides. It's kind of hard to see the white because she's sipping nectar from a white wildflower.
Then there was this GIANT of a strange fiery-orange bug scurrying across the ground. I made sure to stay out of his way since I defnitely didn't want him crawling up my leg.
And, then another gargantuan bug. He was kind of freaky and I think I was interrupting his mating ritual, so I moved on quickly. The back of our property is woods and you can see that we get a lot of strange and unusual looking critters.
And, lastly I made a grim and sad discovery. At first, I thought it was 4 butterflies sitting on the ground together and I was eager to see what they were doing. But it turned out this butterfly who had met the end of his lifespan. Three of his wings were separated from his body. I hope he enjoyed sipping nectar from my butterfly plants.

I have no idea what kind of bugs these are, but I'm sure they all serve a unique purpose in the wild and I'm glad to have them around to discover.

Wildlife Around the Garden

This Anhinga hangs his wings out to dry in the sun. He's perched atop a tree that was blown into the lake during a hurricane back in 2005. We had three storms that summer, and I can't recall which one toppled this tree. Turtles also love to sunbathe on the trunk of this tree.

And the Great Blue Heron also uses this same branch for a perch. Now the branch is just barely out of the water due to so much rain this summer.

Our resident red-shouldered hawk sits on the peak of our house scouting out his next meal. This past spring he hunted continuously, and we suspected that he had a brood of young'uns to feed. Now he is less visible. He's great at keeping the snake population down, but we've also seen him carrying baby birds (ugh), squirrels, rodents and frogs. A gorgeous bird!


The Osprey circle over the water in search of their next meal.


And, here's a lazy gator sunbathing on the same fallen tree that the bird in the first photo sat on. Click on this photo to enlarge it, and you'll see that his mouth is open. Perhaps he's waiting for some unsuspecting creature to swim right in. Either that or I caught him in the middle of a yawn.

I couldn't leave this cute little "wild" animal photo out. She's our plant-crushing cat who just happens to fit perfectly inside this clay pot. Never mind the fern that's being flattened and squeezed to the side. Luckily, the plant survived this 7 lb. light-weight kitty.

Chirp

Four weeks ago our neighbor’s dog found a baby Blue Jay, who apparently had fallen out of the nest, sitting in the middle of our backyard. I quickly grabbed an old cat carrier, and placed her inside. She did not look injured and fortunately had not been discovered by a cat, snake or hawk. I made a quick telephone call to my sister (who works for a vet) to find out what to feed her, and the next thing we knew we were off on a 4-week bird-rearing adventure.

And, what a wonderful adventure it has been. We got the same reaction every time we approached her cage. She would stand on her toes, wings outstretched, beak wide open and squawk a continuous command to feed her. So down the hatch we placed dry cat food soaked in water. Next came some droplets of water. We repeated these feedings every couple of hours (except at night -I figured her mother doesn't go out for food after dark!) because she's always hungry.

Five days later she was flourishing and had changed dramatically in size. Her blue feathers had come in around her rump and the fuzzy feathers around her neck were replaced by flat gray and blue feathers. We expanded her diet to include mealworms and pieces of crickets -canned of course! I bet you didn't know you can purchase a Can-O-Crickets at the pet store. I know I didn't but I'm sure glad it's possible, since I did not want to go digging for worms in the yard.

She grew steadily, and each evening we would place her cage on the coffee table while we watched television. My husband would take her out, hold her in his hand and stroke the back of her head. She sat perfectly still, making soft churping sounds and eventually would tuck her head beneath her wing. It was so adorable. When he would try to place her back in the cage she would start squawking quite loudly.

It was a true delight to be this close to a wild bird, and to see her grow and flourish. She became a beloved member of our family. My daughter named her "Chirp" and we all fell in love with her. We dreaded the day we would have to set her free. But we hoped and prayed that this beautiful creature could somehow survive despite having had "weird parents" and no official outdoor training.

Our two indoor cats would sit by her cage for hours watching every move she made. They were thoroughly entranced by this little bit of the wild that somehow found its way into their home. When they got too close, Chirp would squawk a warning sign and they would back off.

Friends were amazed at the news that we were able to keep the bird alive. She took weekend trips with us to our other house, attended our Mother's Day celebration and even visited with the children in my daughter's class at school. They were smitten with her and asked 101 questions about her.

On Memorial Day at noon we set her free with our best advice and well wishes. She fluttered around the tree tops and seemed extremely happy and at home in her new environment. Everytime we called her name she chirped back in response.
Around 5 that evening she flew down to the deck and ate Cheez-its with my husband. Later at 7 she flew down and sat on the balcony railing and chatted with my daughter and me. The next morning we couldn't see her and she didn't answer when we called her name. But at noontime when I walked out on to the balcony she squawked at me, flew to the railing, spread her wings, opened her mouth and squawked for food. I told her that it wasn't my job anymore to stuff goodies down her throat. I laid a piece of bread on the railing, she grabbed it and flew to a branch to eat it. That was the last time I saw her.

I find myself worring constantly about her, especially when the rain showers roll in. I step outside often and call her name hoping that she'll fly in and squawk at me one more time. There was another Blue Jay fluttering around her, so perhaps she has gone with him - at least, that will be the ending that I choose for this adventure. I hope so, but I also hope that I see her one more time so that I know she has made it in the wild.