Pink summer collage

A collection of pink flowers from my garden.

Garden Flowers to Attract Birds.

American Goldfinch

Plants are very useful in attracting birds to your garden. 

I snapped this photo of a male American Goldfinch eating Purple Coneflower seeds. 

Seeing a Goldfinch dining on flower seeds,  lets us know that it is time to stop deadheading the flowers.  Finches and other seed eating birds like House Finches will eat the seeds of plants through the autumn and winter.

If you have native flowers with plenty of delicious seeds, you can leave the seed heads up until the birds pick them clean.

Yet, an another way to attract birds to your garden.

Here is a list of summer and autumn blooming flowers which provide seeds for birds. 

Native Plants

• Sunflowers (Helianthus species)
• Cup Plant (Siliphium perfoliatum)
• Wild Senna (Cassia bebecarpa)
• Blazing Stars (Liatris species)
• Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)
• Goldenrod (Solidago species)
• Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia species)
• Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium species)
• Ironweed (Veronica noveboracensis)
• Coreopsis (Coreopsis species)
• Asters (Asters species)
• Sedums species (esp. Autumn Joy)
• Zinnias (Zinnia species)

Non-native Plants

• Marigolds (Tagetes species)
• Cosmos (Cosmos species)

Maybe a few of these plants can be added to your 'garden wish list' for next spring.

Full Moon Today

The full moon will appear at 1:05 pm.

Yellow summer collage

A yellow themed collection of my nature photos.

Merchants of Doubt - Understanding the Climate Change Controversy

Video link: Amazon.com : Entertainment : Merchants of Doubt

This is the book I am currently reading. As a librarian I am concerned about the accuracy of information.

Merchants of Doubt chronicles the "campaign of misinformation" created by corporation and political groups about acid rain, secondhand smoke, climate change among other issues.
I have included the Amazon.com video link by one of the authors. If you have doubts about the reality of climate change, this book will shed new light.

In bloom in Philadelphia

Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus palustris)

Native flowers are my first love. I am fascinated by the shapes, the colors the scents. I like watching insects sip nectar, lay eggs and eat the leaves and petals. Everything about native plants fascinate me.

I have a separate blog that chronicles the native plants of the Philadelphia area.

Here are some the of the native plant photos I have taken in the past week.  All the photos were taken at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, PA. Enjoy!

Wild Senna (Cassia hebecarpa)

Purple Giant Hyssop (Agastache scrophulariaefolia)

New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboracensis)

Thin-leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba)

Summer Phlox (Phlox Panculata, David)

Best Time to Visit Philly

A Philadelphia Sky in September

When is a good time to visit Philadelphia? Not in July or August. This is the time that the weather in the Delaware Valley is at its worse. The locals usually flee to the Jersey Shore to have a few days of relief. Or stay home under a shade tree or air conditioning.

H-H, heat and humidity basically describes every day in  July and August. There is the rare day when a big thunderstorm blows through and cools off the area, but this doesn't happen as often as we would like.

In July and August downtown and the historic areas of the city are filled with tourists. But if you like it hot and steamy, then you'll love Philadelphia in the summer.

The best times to come to Philly? Spring and autumn. Both times are cool, beautiful and usually dry. But, spring and fall are when we can get rain for several days. Hum? Chance of rain or heat and humidity? I'll take the chance of rain.

Why is Philadelphia so humid? We are located in a river valley, the Delaware River Valley. Philadelphia is basically shaped like a "Y", with rivers running down each side. And don't forget the Atlantic Ocean, it is just 98 miles away down the Delaware River and an hour away straight across New Jersey. That makes for tons of water evaporating into the air.

In spring the trees and shrubs bloom, well-insulated bumblebees make their appointed rounds and the resident birds begin to sing and build their nests.  This is the time I go to many places because they are no crowds and just the locals.

In the Fall (what Philadelphians call "autumn"), the deciduous trees change to brilliant colors and leaves softly fall (hence the name "fall") to the ground. And waterfowl and hawks are migrating southward.  Monarch butterflies are migrating through Cape May State Park at the (New) Jersey Shore.

So, take it from a native Philadelphian, spring (April through early June) and fall (mid-September through early November) are wonderful times here in the Philadelphia region.

Come soak up the atmosphere, learn both early U.S. and natural history, and eat a cheesesteak.

Philadelphia Day Trips
Natural Places to visit in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.

Hummingbird Migration Dates

female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird at Schuylkill Nature Center

The hummingbirds should be migrating.

I spotted this female Ruby-Throat at the Schuylkill Nature Center in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia last Wednesday.

At first I heard a squeaking noise and then I realized it was a hummingbird. She flew right by me and sat on the thin branches of a tree, not more than fifteen feet from me.

Several days later, another female Ruby-Throat hovered less than six feet from me when I was at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope Bucks County.

So, the female Ruby-Throats are still in the area.

The Ruby-Throated hummer is the only hummingbird that lives and nests in the Philadelphia area. The male as a sparkly deep ruby red colored feathers on its throat. The female has plain white feathers.

Another hummingbird the Rufous Hummingbird is a regular rare visitor to Pennsylvania during migration. This hummingbird frequents backyard hummingbird feeders during their migration from August to December. The Rufous doesn't nest in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania. The Ruby-Throated does nest in the state.

Now it a good time to put out hummingbird feeders to attract hummingbirds to your garden. Many of these small birds will be passing through on their migration down to Central America.

The hummingbird migration dates vary according region of the country. This chart covers the eight most common species that breed in North America. This information is helpful in knowing when to place your nectar feeders out in your backyard habitat gardens. If you don't live in the Philadelphia area, any bird field guide will tell you which species you can expect to find in your neighborhood.

Eastern	Northward	Southward
Ruby-throated	late February to mid-May	late July to late October
Western	Northward	Southward
Allen's	January to March	mid-May to September
Anna's	does not migrate; shifts to local areas with more food
Black-chinned	mid-March through mid-May	mid-July - November
Broad-tailed	March to May	August to October
Calliope	March to May	late July to September
Costa's	late January to February	September to October
Rufous	February to May	late June to September

For a great hummingbird feeder and nectar recipe, try
http://www.donnallong.com/search/label/hummingbirds

Animal Migration

Dark-eyed Juncos migrate to my backyard in the fall and stay until spring.

Fall migration has begun and the animals are on the move.

What's Behind Animal Migration?
Migration is the mass movement of large groups of animals or people from one place to another. It is often because conditions have changed so that staying where they were will make life difficult.

Hibernation is staying in the same place and sleeping through the worst conditions. Many small-bodied mammals tend to deal with the seasonal changes by eating so much that they put on a layer of fat and by hibernating in the winter.

Aside from certain tropical and evergreen forest areas where migrations are relatively uncommon, a large number of both aquatic and terrestrial species move from one habitat to another at some time during their lives.

Why Do They Move?
I think the reasons behind the moves are pretty obvious. The changing temperatures seem to be the biggest factor causing animals to move.

Here in the north it gets cold. Autumn and winter bring heavy rains, snow and ice storms. The plants and insects that birds, butterflies and other animals depend on for food, disappear.

These food sources go dormant or die with dropping temperatures. Another reason for mass movement is reproduction.

Animals, particularly birds, move to areas that are very favorable for raising young. Birds migrate north in the spring to take advantage of the emergence and abundance of insects and other foods.

The same individuals reappear every year in an area. They often arrive within a few days of a certain date each year. An example would be the cliff swallows of Capistrano which return to the town every year around March 19th.

Human often migrate due to war famine, disaster, disease and bad living conditions.

Many factors are thought to trigger mass movement. Most fall into one or two categories.

1. Programmed events at predictable intervals in lifestyle or life cycle. 
2. Seasonal variations – change in day length, temperature, or abundance of food, episodic, density population movements, over large populations beyond environment carrying capacity 

Who Moves?
Many animals move. Some travel thousands of miles and some just dig a few feet deeper into the mud of a pond, lake or stream. The most common travelers are birds. Birds like insect-eating songbirds, artic terns, Canada geese and many others move from one area to another as the weather takes a turn for the worse and food becomes scarce.

Who else moves?
Monarch butterflies, wapiti, caribou and many fish also migrate. Some high mountain dwelling animals move from high mountain tops to the lower mountain valleys. They move from high mountain elevations to lower elevations to escape severe winter storms. The heavy snow and ice makes finding food difficult. The wapiti of Yellowstone Park move to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, and caribou move from the tundra to the coniferous forests.

Animals That Move

• Atlantic Salmon Sockeye Salmon 
• Monarch butterfly 
• Painted Lady butterfly 
• Broad tail Hawks, 
• Red Wing Blackbirds
• Canada Geese 
• Wapiti (elk) 
• Caribou 
• Moose 
• Birds 
• Lobsters 
• Bees 
• Tortoises 
• Bats 
• Fish, brittle starfishes 
• Newts and toads
• Insects 

How Do They Navigate?
Animals seem to use several ways to find their way as the move from one place to another. Animals use a variety of environmental information to locate their positions and appropriate travel paths.

Most species have been found to use more than one type of information to navigate. Young individuals may also learn from older more experienced adults.

Ways by Which Animals Find Their Way

• star navigation 
• the position of the sun, moon and stars 
• gravitational field of the earth
• magnetic fields 
• ultraviolet light (on overcast days) 
• polarized light (on overcast days) 
• environmental odors (like the smell of the ocean) 
• coastline and shoreline configurations 
• water currents 
• visual landmarks 

Here in Philadelphia we will be watching the migration of songbirds and birds of prey in the coming weeks. And the migration of Monarch butterflies along the New Jersey shore.

Those dead animals we see now along the roads are migrating and not making it across the road. I have seen dead opossum and skunks in the last week or two. The dead animals tell us who lives near us, sometimes without us knowing it.

Sources Consulted “Migration”, by Sneed B. Collard in Magill’s Encyclopedia of Science: Animal Life, vol. 3 Lemurs– Respiration, , p. 1036 – 1041. "Migration" by Valerius Geist, PhD in Grzimek's Animal LifeEncyclopedia. Vol. 12: MammalsI. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 164-170. 17 vols.

Orange Summer Collage

A collage of summer Philadelphia nature photos all with an orange theme.

First Signs of Fall

Last night was the August 15th and the return of cool nights.

Today, I show you some signs of Autumn that I photographed last Wednesday at Schuylkill Nature Center in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.

This is the time of year I like to spot those first signs of the leaves changing color.  And here are a few photos.

This bicolor leaf really caught my eye.

Whole branches are changing.

Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifer)

All these leaves have stopped manufacturing food. The days are growing shorter.

If you haven't noticed the changing leaves or the dead migrating animals by the side of the road,  try spotting all the signs of fall you can find.

And why not write them down in a journal. And let me know what you find.

Cool nights after August 15th

It's August 15th.

After this day the nights here in the Delaware Valley usually become cooler. A sure sign autumn is coming, migration are gearing up and summer is just about over.

The nights actually started to become cooler the last week of July. But, traditionally we look to August 15th as the time when the good sleeping weather begins.

Green nature photo collage

A green themed collection of my nature photos.

Lughansadh - 1st fruits

August 7 is Lughnasadh (Lammas) is a cross-quarter day of the Celtic calendar. It is a time of the grain harvest. And signals the ending of summer.

In North America,  corn (maize) growing American Indians celebrate the Green Corn Ceremony.

A Friendly Skipper

European Skipper (Thymelicus lineola) Courtesy of genry_sharp on Flickr

Two mornings ago, I was in my garden watering my potted plants when a lovely orangey-brown European Skipper landed on my chest. It's head was pointed right at me and I could tell it was studying me. 

It was friendly encounter and I felt warmth and affection for this little brother or sister. 


The Skipper stayed on my chest watching me for several minutes. It's proboscis didn't probe for nectar. Nor did it's feet shift to taste the chemical composition of my tank top, as if the butterfly wanted to lay eggs. It sat, rested and then flew off. 

I don't have a photograph of the Skipper as I didn't dare move or reach for a camera. The Skipper probably would have left immediately. It would have made a great photo with a butterfly staring at me from seven inches away. 

Attracting Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Joe-Pye Weed

Eastern Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium dubium) is an Eastern Swallowtail magnet. You can count on it attracting these big yellow butterflies here on the East Coast

No matter where I come across Joe-Pye Weed blooming, I have seen these big yellow butterflies on top of the doomed flower clusters, sipping nectar.

I bought this plant at the Bowman's Hill Native Plant sale two years ago and it attracted Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies from the first time it bloomed.

A garden of good nectar sources and host plants in the local area, should provide good habitat for Eastern Swallowtails.

The host plants for Eastern Tiger Swallowtails include Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), Wild Cherries (Prunus species), Ash (Fraxinus) and Sweet Bay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) trees.

A host plant is what a butterfly caterpillar eats. Butterfly caterpillar (and other native insect larvae) are only able to eat certain plants.  They are like people. We can eat some plants but others will make us sick and die.

Butterfly caterpillars eat native plants almost exclusively. So, all the non-native plants we are planting in parks and gardens, aren't helping the native insects. We are basically cutting out their food supply.

A good book to read about the link between nature insects and native plants is Bring Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy.

Funky Nature Photo - Columbine

Columbine in my garden.

Silver Lake Nature Center

wetland at Silver Lake Nature Center

Silver Lake Nature Center is located in Bristol, PA in Bucks County.

Visiting Silver Lake Nature Center is a great thing to do when visiting Philadelphia or in getting to know the land where you live. This 235-acre center has a wide variety of habitats.

meadow, Silver Lake nature Center

There are Coastal Plain forests, woodlands, meadows, a lake, marshes, wetlands and an unglaciated bog.

The specialness of Silver Lake lies in its wetlands. The Center lies on the Coastal Plain Province of Pennsylvania. It's 175-acre Delhaas Woods is called the best remaining example of Coastal Plains woodlands within Pennsylvania.

Atlantic Coastal plain Forest, Silver Lake Nature Center

The Delhaas Woods Coastal Plain Forest canopy is dominated by Sweet Gum, Black (Sour) Gum, Red Maple and Pin Oak. Other Oaks such as White Oak, Red Oak and Willow Oak can be found it the forest.

The Center host many activities and programs. It provides kayaking lessons and trips for every level from beginner to advanced.

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

There is a butterfly garden near the visitor's center. While in the butterfly garden I spotted a Red Admiral and assorted skippers.

From the city it takes an hour to get to Silver Lake using the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  From Philadelphia it is a good day trip. And there are many restaurants in the surrounding area.

Silver Lake Nature Center, 1306 Bath Road, Bristol, PA 19007. phone 215.785.1177
http://www.silverlakenaturecenter.org/