Lake Chickahominy, Wednesday

Duck Blind - New Kent

hummingbirds, feeders & ants

Are ants on the hummingbird feeder a problem?
Really? Other than aesthetic?
Saw ruby-throated female do something that looked a lot like eating ants off feeder & pole.
Organic, free range, wild ants?
That would be an ecosystem!
Based on red dye, sugar & water.
Yum, yum.

avarice curtailed, re: homing pigeons

Homing pigeon, not yet home.


"It shall be unlawful for any person at any time or in any manner to hunt, pursue, take, capture, wound, maim, disfigure, or kill any homing pigeon of another person, or to make use of any pit or pitfall, scaffold, cage, snare, trap, net, baited hook or similar device or drug, poison chemical or explosive, for the purpose of injuring, capturing or killing any such homing pigeon, provided that any officer, employee or agent of a city or county acting pursuant to authority of an ordinance thereof may take, capture and kill pigeons in, on and about any building or structure devoted to business, commercial or industrial purposes when any pigeons are using such premises for roosting, resting or congregating thereon; all pigeons taken upon such premises shall be conclusively deemed not to be homing pigeons or the property of any person. Any person violating any of the foregoing provisions shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor. " Virginia Code § 18.2-145. Protection of homing pigeons. (Code 1950, § 18.1-160; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15.)

Oh, I lusted for that bird on the shore of the Mataponi.
Note the two green leg bands.

Zoar State Forest, Aylett VA

45 miles, 55 minutes & many developers away

tracks, raccoon

lunch

Watch List

american kestrel burst from bushes pursing dragonfly
barred owl flew toward house, perched in one tree then another
beavers, two, swimming
carolina sphinx moth
cicada emerging from its shell
two deer galloping bewildered through yard
homing pigeon grooming along Mataponi River
luna moth knocking on window, frayed
quail, two
tree frog on kitchen window, two stories up

bunny ears look great in sunlight

bunny paparazzi photo

caterpillars make dumb pets

Wanted a butterfly friendly garden. Purchased curly parsley at garden center with butterflies darting & hovering. Black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars appeared 3 months later. Very satisfying. Not the parsley I cook with. All in all, excellent.

Yesterday, parsley gone; caterpillars plump, depressed & not yet chrysalises.

No more parsley at Ulster Ameican Gardening Center but owner gave me 3 scrappy & scrapped lovage plants, saying last year's inventory of lovage had been descimated by swallowtail caterpillars so he could highly recommend lovage.

Caterpillars now reinstalled on lovage. Eating.

hit replay

One year since we arrived.
All things are now relative.
Not to our world before but to this world itself.
Hibiscus have regrown around the dock.
Water level is higher.
Baby bunnies are bigger.
Turtles are done laying.
Hummingbirds have returned in force.

Replaying, more is heard, seen, sensed.