Winter Colors: Brown

Bare Brown Woods

I watched the colors change over the course of the fall, and before I knew it, fall became winter, leaving the landscape bare and brown. The colors faded as the sunlight waned and the temperatures dipped, turning the woods from garish yellows, oranges and reds to sudued earthtones. Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees, except for the Beech leaves that hang on and rustle in the breeze. The leaves that fell will break down to form new soil, at first leaving only a skeletal outline of veins and stems before decaying altogether. Acorns, Buckeye and flower seeds, ripened to a rich brown, become a delicious feast for the lucky finder. Freezing winter nights bring sparkling leafy treasures to find on a morning walk. The groundhog saw his shadow this week, predicting six more weeks of winter. This is fine with me because for a short while it is easy to spot birds and squirrels out in the open, without the protective cover of leaves. For now I enjoy the quiet and cold and wait for the sun to warm the soil. 

Beech Leaves

Leaf Skeleton

Ripened Flower Seeds

Buckeye Seed

Acorn Pile

Frosty Sweet Gum Leaf

Sparkling Frozen Landscape

Brown Creeper

Gray Squirrel

Carolina Wren

White Tailed Deer

Hermit Thrush

Female Eastern Towhee

Brown Turkey Tail Fungi

Fall Colors: Blue

Here it is-- the last day of fall. Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice. A few freezing nights have toasted just about all the fall blooms, except for a few that were protected close to the ground or close to the house. The prevailing landscape colors are muted earth tones, and they are lovely. But every so often, I glimpse a flash of blue as a bluebird or bluejay zips past, or catch the brilliant blue sky from between the branches of the leafless trees and it jolts me awake from my cold weather nap. Blue is my favorite color and has been since I was little. My first memory of loving the color comes after I visited Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake. Somehow I got it into my head that stars were blue. Maybe they appeared that way on the dome of the planetarium, or maybe we looked at a mineral that had some blue in it, but Cobalt blue seemed magical ever after, and is the one that really makes my heart sing, though most blues will do it for me. Lapis lazuli. Sigh. Blue makes me smile, quickens my pulse, brightens my eyes. It pops. Blue symbolizes hope and promise, loyalty and calm. Blue skies peeking through the clouds let us know there is hope and a future after the storm. It also symbolizes sadness to some, though not to me. "The Bluebird of Happiness" "Blue Skies, smiling at me, nothing but blue skies, do I see". After the year we've just been through, I definitely need more blue in my world. 

Carolina Chickadee feasts on the blue fruits of invasive privet

Blue tail of an immature 5 Lined Skink on a warmer day

Waning Moon in a bright blue sky

Tiny Bluejay feather

Great Blue Heron shows tinges of blue on the edges of its wings

Belted Kingfisher, blue with cold! (It was 28 degrees that morning)

Clear Blue Skies and Bare Trees

A hungry bee feeding from the last of the Blue Salvia

Bluebird of Happiness (Eastern Bluebird)

Brighter Days ahead

Fall Colors: Purple

Purple is a restful color. Not fiery red, not cool blue--but a pleasant and tranquil mix. We need more purple in our lives. Just a month ago, the color purple was everywhere. Purple asters sprinkled among the goldenrod that carpeted the roadsides, and clusters of purple berries and grapes hung ready to be gobbled by hungry birds and deer. But in December, the flowers are mostly spent and the beautyberry fruit, and poke and virginia creeper berries are mostly gone, save for a few that escaped the cold and the herbivory. Their days are numbered. Too late for Red-spotted Purple butterflies, and too early for violets. But walking around the woods and in my yard, I still was able to find a few bright purples flashes holding out before winter turns the landscape all brown and tan and white. 

In the fall, Sweetgum leaves come in all the colors. This one is purple, but I've found
yellow, orange, red and brown too.

Moss Phlox blossoms in the Playscape at the Nature Center

A clump of Beautyberries that made it through the first frost

A few Georgia Aster blooms are hanging on in our sheltered pond garden

The flowers of Muhly grass are like soft purple clouds in the front yard

The underside of a Crane-fly Orchid leaf (Tipularia discolor) is bright purple surprise

Spores from big white Puff Ball fungi leave purple/brown discs on the grass

 These Purple Cort (Cortinarius) mushrooms were so lovely that I had to include them, even though
I saw these  a few years back on a hike with the Ramblers

Purple Finches came with the migrant warblers and a few have stayed around,
now hanging with the Robins and Cedar Waxwings

Violet Toothed Polypores, I believe. I don't know my fungi. My only clue is the purple edge. 

Winter Visitors

No More Cookies

January is here and people are returning to normal work and school schedules after a long holiday season. Our house was bustling this year with visiting family and happy celebrations for about 2 weeks. It was lots of fun and the house seems pretty quiet now as we put everything back in where it belongs and clean and tidy up. The cookies and treats are just about all eaten up, the tree has gone to be recycled into mulch, and the laundry is almost all washed and folded. Pretty much back to the old routine.

But one of our visitors decided to stay a while longer and so I've been making some accommodations. We were very lucky this year to find a Rufous Hummingbird in our yard in mid-December. I checked today and it is still here, and probably will be for the rest of the winter. It was pure luck that I even found it in the first place. On December 12 I stepped out on the front porch and a small bird zoomed past me and landed in a tree. I saw that it was a hummingbird, which is pretty unusual for winter here in Georgia. Little did I know that it was not one of our typical Ruby Throated birds, but at that moment I couldn't see it well enough to know. I had left out a nectar feeder hoping for this very possibility because I read that some birds will straggle behind during migration and need refueling stations. But I hadn't seen anyone feeding in our yard since fall and the nectar was old and yucky. I ran inside to brew up some fresh nectar (dissolve 1 part sugar into 4 parts water, cool and serve. No food coloring, please) and brought it out in a fresh, clean feeder. Then I proceeded to clean and refill all of our feeders.  I posted an excited message on Facebook that day and the next day I was rewarded with a beautiful view of a Rufous Hummingbird from my kitchen window. According to my Sibley Field Guide, Rufous Hummingbirds are rare in our area. They live in the Pacific Northwest, winter in the Gulf Coast and Florida, but don't really live in my part of the world. What a treat! If I hadn't seen him fly by and hadn't refilled the feeders, who knows if he would have stayed around?

Male Rufous Hummingbird from the Kitchen Window

I proudly reported my bird (note how protective I'm getting!) to the local Audubon group and on eBird and promptly had requests from other birders who wanted to know if they could come see him. We've had a regular stream of Rufous fans ever since. To make it even better, one of the groups of observers also noticed a pair of Baltimore Orioles in our bushes. I had no idea they were there and had given up all hope of hosting them the way we did in Florida. I had understood that they didn't winter here, and I left our jelly dishes behind in Gainesville when we moved. When I put out the hummingbird feeder, the Orioles came to drink from it and the Rufous was furious! He chased them away and chattered at them. But I found another dish, bought some grape jelly, and now there is peace once again. There are only 2 Orioles, not the jelly gobbling hordes that we had in Gainesville, and there are none of the older, brilliant orange males. But I'm happy, and maybe these 2 will bring friends.

Baltimore Oriole Eating Jelly

Truce

He's Awfully Pretty, Don't You Think?

Last weekend, after the Rufous had been with us for a few weeks, I noticed mildew on the feeders. I was hoping they'd stay clean longer in cold weather, but fungus loves sugar and sun so it was time to clean. On New Years Day, I pulled down all the feeders and gave them a good scrubbing with brushes, biodegradable soap and a vinegar water rinse. Then I filled them again with fresh nectar. The seed feeders probably need a good mid-winter cleaning, too, but I'll get to them when the rain clears up. I guess it's going to be a busy New Year!

All Taken Apart

Brushes to Clean the Gunk

Mini Brushes for the Small Spaces

Refilled with Fresh Nectar

Happily Feeding

I hope your New Year is filled with happy days, exciting discoveries, interesting visitors, plenty of food and very little mildew.

Mockingbird doesn't understand what all the fuss is

Baby, It's Cold Outside! And Then It's Warm Again. Then Cold...

Big Snow in the Yard

I'm trying to get used to Georgia winters. After 19 years in more temperate Florida, our move to Georgia has me learning how to do it all over again. I haven't driven in ice or snow since 1996, and I've been nervous about even walking on the stuff since breaking my ankle on the ice a few years before that. Yes, I know that Georgia doesn't get that much snow and it doesn't get as cold as, say, North Dakota. But yesterday I pushed a disk of ice half an inch thick off of our birdbath. That didn't happen very often in Florida. I am not unfamiliar with cold winters, having grown up in the mountain west and spent 7 years in Wisconsin. But this time it is different. I'm afraid that, as they say in Florida, my "blood has thinned" and the cold days just feel really cold! Also, the weather is so variable that I don't get a chance to settle into a winter groove. One day it is sunny and in the 60's, and then a front rolls in and we have freezing rain and snow. And then it's back to the 60's again. Lucky for me, I held onto my warm sweaters, hats and scarves when we moved from Wisconsin. And my shorts and flip flops from Florida.

Icy Birdbath

So far this winter we have had a couple of small accumulations of snow, maybe 1-2 inches. And we've had some ice. We don't own a snow shovel yet, and don't know if it will really be necessary, but after the last ice which sent our poor clueless Florida dogs sliding off the porch and down the stairs to the driveway, I invested in some Ice Melt. The city does not own snow plows, so snow or ice on the roads will close everything down. It's kind of fun. Really, it would be just fine to go out and continue life as usual, minus driving. (I've been told that people don't know how to drive in snow and ice and it's better to stay off the roads). People play tennis and golf all winter, except maybe for the snow/ice days. When it's really cold, we prefer to hunker down in the house in front of a warm fire, but we still get out. I was rewarded last month when I braved the cold to take a brisk nature walk on one of the first freezing days of the year. I went out in search of "Frost Flowers". They are not really flowers, but are ice formed when moisture inside plants expands in freezing temperatures and extrudes through cracks in the hollow stems. Most of the Frost Flowers I've seen here were coming out of Frostweed (Verbesina virginica), but I've seen them on Salvia in Florida during an especially harsh winter. I found these ones in the restored Piedmont Prairie at Sandy Creek Nature Center and every Frostweed plant had a little bouquet of ice at its base. It was beautiful. Frost covered the leaves and grass on the ground and everything looked sparkly and magical. By noon, the temperatures were back in the 40's and 50's and the frost was all gone. 

Frost Flowers

Frost Flowers

Frost Flowers

Sparkles

Around town most of the trees are bare, which makes it easier to see birds on the branches. I spotted a Red-bellied Woodpecker excavating a nest in a leafless tree across the street from our house. In contrast, the bushes (mainly camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons) are green and leafy and dotted with blossoms and buds. Our holly bushes are covered with berries, too. Yet another example of the confusing climate here. It is not as green in the winter as Florida and not as stark as Minnesota. The birds, squirrels and chipmunks don't mind either way. They're on the hunt for food all day, cold or not. On the warmer days, it is fun to watch the Chickadees and Goldfinches scour the bushes, searching old camellia blossoms for hidden bugs. And the Robins and Cedar Waxwings gorge on the holly berries. The critters have me working hard keeping the bird feeders full. Every few days I put out scoops of hearty sunflower and other mixed nuts, suet and thistle seed. We usually have 20-25 species of birds feeding on any given day. The cold weather makes them very, very hungry and they need to fatten up before breeding time. I figure that they can use all the help they can get. We humans keep destroying their habitat and removing their food sources, so putting out some seed seems like the least I can do. A little feeding oasis in our yard will help give them a needed boost, and as a bonus, I get to watch them.

Brown Headed Nuthatch Refueling

Red Bellied Woodpecker and its Nest

On the colder days I do most of my birding from the comfort of my kitchen window. I am sorry to admit that my idea of a keeping a Georgia almanac has not panned out. I tried to make a daily record of weather, temperatures and wildlife seen, but I am just not that methodical or disciplined and I pooped out after just a few weeks. I did watch our birds all weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count and made several reports, all from inside the house. But the times that I convince myself to bundle up and go birding away from home are almost always rewarding. And the birds in the woods are a little more varied than the regulars in my back yard. On my last excursion I saw flocks of Golden Crowned Kinglets and a couple of Brown Creepers, both new birds on my list. Today will probably be a good day to get out again. It was dark, dreary and frigid yesterday, but today the skies are clear and blue and I don't need my extra layers. And if I go out exploring I will feel like I earned the cookies and potato soup that I cooked up yesterday to beat the cold. Sounds good to me.

Golden Crowned Kinglet

Ginger Cookies, Hot From the Oven