Towheeblog

June 20

The calendar would have us believe it is still spring, but my eyes see summer.  There are several species of dragonfly hunting for smaller insects.  Garden spiders are now spreading their webs along the face of shrubs or across a garden path. This morning I saw a female Anna’s Hummingbird on a limb next to her newly fledged off-spring. She may have migrated from Mexico but was able to avoid the border patrol and now her hatchling is an American citizen, that’s a citizen of the whole American hemisphere. The swallowtail butterflies can be seen in bouyant flight, searching for the next nectar.  The local blueberries, including those in our garden, are starting to show color in their fruit.  Our cherries are ripe enough to eat without a pucker.  The sweet peas are full and perfect.  The tomatoes have their first blossoms.In England and Scotland this is known as rosebay willowherb, here in the US it is often called “fireweed.”   It is in the genus Chamaenerion.  It is native across the Northern Hemisphere.  There spikes were on the edge of a berry thicket, itself on the edge of McMinnville.Here is No Name Pond, nearly drowned in emergent vegetation, its shoreline almost imperceptible.  There were two young Pied-billed Grebes in one pool of visible water, their zebra-streaked faces a sign of their youthfulness.  Bullfrogs were chorusing around the pond’s perimeter.  No sight nor sound of Sora.How long the lichen?American Goldfinch on feeder, and siskins greedily feeding in the tray below.I believe this is a male robin, perhaps building a second nest for the season…