July 3, 2009 - 1
The first full week of summer was beautiful in the backyard this year. The sun showed itself a bit more than it had been recently and the continuing rainy season allowed for much growth. The mimosa trees have buds now and their pinkish blooms will be here soon, a favorite natural feeding spot for the ruby-throated hummingbird. The chicory is now in bloom as well. A bushy perennial herb with blue, lavender, or occasionally white flowers, chicory roots are ground up and roasted as an additive to or a substitute for coffee. The backyard songbirds seem to love it too, perching on the top of the fragile plant later in the season to eat its seeds. Also in bloom in the backyard this week, purple coneflower, purple salvia and smartweed. New pine cones were seen this week as well, hanging from the giant Norway spruce trees like many bunches of bananas and causing the trees arms to droop. The apple, pear and cherry trees seem to have benefited from our rainy spring and are showing their fruit. The volunteer pear tree that I found in the front yard just last year has probably a hundred small pears growing on it and the tree is now about twelve feet tall. Meanwhile, sunrise occurred in the backyard this morning at 5:34, sunset will arrive at 8:34 this evening. Losing just 3 minutes this week, we're still doing alright with 15 hours of spectacular sunlight each day! Adding in dawn and dusk, that's like 16 hours of daylight!Backyard Tip of the week:
It's a holiday weekend and life is for living! Forget the chores, just go out and have fun this weekend. Invite friends & family You're sure to love it!
Backyard sightings for last week:
Including blue-jays, northern cardinals, brown creepers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, song sparrows, tree sparrows, American robins, Carolina wrens and Carolina chickadees. Catbirds, bluebirds, mockingbirds, house finches, goldfinches. Northern flickers, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers. White-breasted nuthatches, tufted titmice, mourning doves, crows, starlings, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, grey squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, bunnies, a few white-tailed deer, more fireflies than you can shake a stick at, and a pair of turkey vultures who were seen circling high above the backyard just Wednesday evening.
Continued on next page...
July 3, 2009 Part 2 - Cool Sightings
© 2009 BackyardTV.com