Join Nature Notes Tuesday at 12:00 am EST to Friday at 11:00 pm EST. More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature? Write a blog post with a photo, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. Please submit one blog post per week and link back to nature notes in some way.

April and May passed in a cloud of a new grandchild and cold wet weather making for more illness than usual this spring. I feel a bit disconnected from the yard except to see that certain tasks needed to be completed. But my nature journal for those 2 months is somewhat sparse as compared to other years that I have kept it.

The lilacs did bloom but unlike this photo, I think it was too cold for butterflies to be active like this tiger swallowtail

The returning migrants flocked to the feeders to stock up after a long journey. The feeders were noisy with grackles, red-winged blackbirds and european starlings.

Common Grackle

More quiet are the small chipping sparrows whom I really enjoy..

Chipping Sparrow (right), Black-capped Chickadee (left)

Many people put out jelly for orioles, but I have been told that a more natural food would be an orange. There are no additives or high fructose corn syrup in an orange and I have seen red-belled woodpeckers and cardinals enjoy the orange. I replace it every 2 days.

baltimore oriole

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Nature walks are wonderful. But you don’t have to travel to special location to enjoy Mother Nature. There is so much to see in your own neighborhood or even in your own back or front yard. Get a guide-book of the wildlife in your area and learn the calls of birds and frogs and toads. So many times I hear a bird that lets me know what I am looking for in the trees.