Goldfinches in the Fall

In late September, I was lucky enough to get some pictures of male goldfinches visiting my deck – for the flower seeds and birdbath. At first they looked like a slightly duller version of their normal selves.

As I looked closer at one feeding on zinnia seeds – I noticed that the feathers were in the process of changing over to winter plumage which is not the bright yellow that they have in summer. The new colors will help the birds avoid predation in the winter.

The change was even easier to see in this series of image of a goldfinch at the birdbath.

Soon the yellow feather will be gone – and there will be a brown-black-white bird that will stay around our feeders (as soon as I put seed in them again). I’ll have to develop more skill to recognize them!

Photographs through a Window – August 2016

August has been hot, humid – punctuated with thunderstorms. Photography through the windows of our house has still be good. The doves are still around – coming for water at the bird bath frequently.

There always seems to be a wasp that leans too far into the bird bath and ends up drowning. I watched one for several minutes and saw that even when it maneuvered itself close to the side, the wasp could not get enough leverage from only 2 or 3 of its legs touching the side to lift itself out of the water.

There has been an uptick in gold finch visits. The bird bath is popular with them just like it to the doves.

But the gold finches like the zinnias

And the high narrow perch of the hanger for the bird feeder (empty during the summer) that the doves are too big to enjoy.

There was a molting American Crow on a neighbor’s roof.

We had more butterflies around in August. The zinnias were visited by spicebush swallowtails and

Tiger swallowtails.

The tiger swallowtails are probably our most prolific large butterflies because we have so many large tulip poplar trees in the forest behind our house (tulip poplars are host plants for the tiger swallowtail caterpillars).

August was a good month for through a window photography!

Deck Garden Challenges – August 2016

This August has been very hot and dry – punctuated with downpours. The deck garden is dominated by green since the day lilies finished their bloom cycle in July. The hose says arced up the stairs and across the deck all the time because the downpours are not frequently enough.

I use the bird bath to decide when to water. Certainly when it starts to dry up the pots are dray too. So far – the bird bath water has not been around long enough for any mosquito larvae at all. There are always dead wasps floating in it.

The pleasures of the August deck garden are smaller than the day lilies – things like zinnias,

A cantaloupe vine (no fruit…but lots of flowers), and

A sweet potato vine (I’ve already harvested some of the leaves for a salad).

The butterflies and birds are noticing the zinnias and sunflowers….that’s another reason to keep the deck garden watered in August.

Zinnias

I can remember my grandmother planting zinnias in her vegetable garden – to give the mostly green vegetation some extra color. They work well for me in pots on my deck now. I enjoy photographing the flowers…and have picked some of my favorites from recent weeks. I’ve been experimenting with using the zoom on the camera rather than getting close. It makes a nicely blurred background (green from trees) and sometimes there is a surprise insect (an early instar of something that is almost clear on the underside of the rightmost petal). At the highest magnification - past what the lenses of the camera support and essentially cropping in the camera - the image has a painterly soft-focus.

Sometimes the background is black because of the way the light is – or isn’t.

I try to get above the flower so that inside shows.

The one with multiple rows of petals also has a spider web! All of the flowers that have petals attract butterflies. Tiger swallowtails are the most frequent visitors.

Once the petals begin to fall off, the seeds are beginning to form and that means that the goldfinches will visit more frequently.

I let them eat their fill. There are always enough left in the seed heads to crumble into the pots for another round of zinnias next summer.

Deck Garden Challenges – July 2016

Through June and into July, it rained frequently enough for the pots on the deck to not need other attention. The day lilies bloomed profusely earlier in the month with almost no effort on my part. Give them a reasonably deep pot and they do great.

But then the rains stopped. Everything started to wilt and I pulled the house attached to the spigot down below up to the deck to make watering easier. Now that the temperatures are getting into the high 80s or 90s in our area of Maryland, I water every morning while the deck is still in the shade and the temperatures are still in the 70s. I empty and refill the bird bath every morning too (a way to make sure I am not breeding mosquitoes!).

The day lilies are about done for the season. I’m going to use every pot and large container I have around to transplant day lily bulbs from the flower beds where the deer at the flowers before they could bloom. There are both yellow and red day lilies that should bloom on the deck next summer if I manage to dig the right bulbs!

I’m transferring attention to plants that the birds and butterflies will like now or when they go to seed in the fall. I’ve already had gold finches checking the zinnias; the flowers have not quite got to seed yet so this bird was out of luck.

The black eyed susans will be popular for their seeds too. I planted some sunflowers but they don’t even have buds yet.

I haven’t harvested any mint yet this year and I’m not sure that I will. I love the smell of the plants when I am watering.