On Flowers and Bird Songs

 I received more beautiful wildflower photos today, this time from Gretchen Farnsworth (Sandy Beach Road). I think most of these were found on a hike she and Jim took to Groton State Forest, but she found the Jack-in-the-Pulpit on Cabot Plain. Top left is a Painted Trillium*; below it is the Jack-in-a-Pulpit, followed by bunch-berry blossoms. The yellow flowers below are blue-bead lilies, and below them is something called Pitcher Plant, which I've never heard of. So, of course I looked it up. It grows in boggy areas and does, indeed, catch insects on it's leaves. It is also known by several different names, such as Indian Dipper, Huntsman's Cup, Frog's Britches or Whipporwill-boots, among others.

 

Here at home, my lilacs have bloomed beautifully this year. This is one of my trees that is comparatively young and that I have cut numerous bouquets from already this year. It is still beautiful and is what I see when I look out my living room window from my chair. I have transplanted several more and still have one very old bush that was planted by my parents in the 1960s. It is still doing very well, but every year one or two of the very oldest trunks dies completely and I have to remove them. It didn't do well last year, so I pruned it quite a bit and cleaned out underneath it last fall. It did much better this year, and I haven't seen any dead wood.

It's been great to sit on my porch (where the pesky black flies can't reach me) and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of spring. Birds are very vocal this time of year, and the scent of first the apple blossoms and now the lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley has been wonderful. I would normally have to be outside to enjoy most of that, but this year I have spent a good share of each day on the porch, just enjoying everything that's going on around me. I've heard bluejays screeching (they are boisterous fellows), squirrels scolding, ducks splashing down in my pond, crows conversing from opposite ends of my lawn, and a variety of songbirds I'm trying to identify - most are very familiar, but I don't know who they are. I've spent a fair amount of time at my computer bringing up various bird calls to try to figure out which ones I'm hearing. I recognize the usual ones, the robins, chickadees, jays, etc., but there are a variety of sparrows and other little birds that are very vocal - only I'm not sure what they are. And then there are the far-away calls of the woods birds that I can hear but never see. I need to have an ornithologist around for a few hours, I guess. I wonder if Mark LaBarr from Audubon is available . . . hmmm.  

I have a wonderful book that Cousin Ora and Kate gave to me several years ago, Music of the Birds, by Lang Elliott.  It has a CD with it, and the other day I was able to get my sound system operating (it's complicated, with all sorts of buttons and switches I have no clue about), but I think I can play that on it now. I used to be able to play CDs on my computer, but my updated computer no longer supports that function. It's like so many other pieces of technology that change after a few years and become obsolete. I'm going to give it a try tomorrow, and perhaps I can learn some bird songs!

*This was originally listed as a white trillium, but a friend emailed me that there is a difference and included a photo of  both the white trillium, pictured here.