Wild Wild Woods

Indianpipe Monotropa uniflora  is white because it contains no chlorophyll;  it derives water and other nutrients by tapping into the thread...

I always try to grow sunflowers as food for the birds. This big one was gorgeous before it fully bloomed, as well as ...

This year, we put a dry branch up as a perch extending from one of the feeder poles.  It is the favorite spot for t...

Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor , who line their nests with found feathers, fledged their five young out of the nestbox a few days ago.  T...

   Red Baneberry, also known as Toadroot and Chinaberry, grows in shady damp areas.   The white flowers grow in spikes that bloom dur...

The Downy Woodpecker parents are busy feeding the young birds in their tree cavity nest.  Every few minutes, one of them brings a worm or ...

The pair of Downy Woodpeckers, seen on May 15 excavating a nest cavity in the wild wild woods, have successfully hatched their clutch of 6...

Worms?  Monsters? These are “finger galls”. Insects or mites feeding on a leaf, or laying eggs on or injecting eggs into part of...

A pair of Tree Swallows Tachycineta bicolor are nesting in one of several nest boxes near the wild wild woods.  Today she laid the third ...

In a corner of the woods, hidden in one of several nest boxes, a mother Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atrcapillus feeds her young nestli...

  A House Wren Troglodytes aedon carries twigs, one at a time, to a nest box. The male works until he fills the box with twigs, leav...

top left: Arisaema triphyllum Jack-in-the-Pulpit; top middle: Geranium maculatum Wild Geranium;  top right: Asarum canadense Wild...

A pair of Downy Woodpeckers decided the tree stump near the feeder garden is a good prospect for their 2016 nest cavity.  They've been e...

  Seven little Black-capped Chickadee eggs hatched in the last few days.  The nestbox cam caught a snapshot when they were all ga...

A few trees in the woods are doing better since some clearing last summer.  This Black Cherry tree, with more open sunlight, is blooming thi...

NestWatch, the citizen science project!  We look for cavity-nesting birds in trees as well as in nest boxes.  A pair of Downy Woodpecker...

NestWatch!  Several nest boxes are in the yard and woods, waiting for cavity-nesting birds.  Each box has a small video cam so we c...

The female Mallard strolled through the wild wild woods with determination.  The male followed her with equal resolve. They wandered in...

These new cones and needle-like leaves are emerging on our non-native European Larch Larix decidua .  The old cones (at top in the photo) ...

Needle-like leaves (right) emerging in clusters, and new cones developing on the deciduous conifer American Larch Larix laricina .  The s...

A very few of last year's berries remain on the American cranberry bush as colorful background for the new buds of this year's leave...

Bloodroot.  Thick juicy underground stems. Sap of blood red. Sanguinaria , its fitting Latin name, meaning blood red.  But walking in the ...

The raptor Coopers Hawk came to the water bowl for a drink, then dropped his tail feathers into the cold water while looking around for...

Robins returned to the wild wild woods; they heard it is now "astronomical spring".