Back in June

Greetings and salutations! I am still here, and do have some things to share with you. I actually selected images for a June post, but didn’t get past that step. So, one month later I offer you these photographic highlights of my late-spring/early-summer naturalist explorations. Enjoy!

It was actually back in May, the 31st, when I had the pleasure of watching this Scarlet Tanager for a few minutes. He was in the deep shade of the forest early on an overcast morning, so the light was not in my favor for photography. But this is undoubtedly one of Vermont’s most striking breeding birds, so I was clicking away with great enthusiasm. Here I managed to get a clear view of him through a window framed with Beech leaves.

Here he is perched on the boughs of an Eastern Hemlock, whose still-developing new leaves reveal the season of the shot.

Speaking of fresh spring growth I encountered this Cinnamon Fern at the perfect time to appreciate the namesake fertile fronds. Many species of ferns produce sori, their spore-bearing structures, on the undersides of their leaves, but Cinamon Fern is among those who produce separate sterile and fertile fronds.

Here we see a favorite of the forest floor. Bunchberry, aka Dwarf Dogwood, bears an inflorescence of small white flowers subtended by showy, white bracts. Said bracts are often misinterpreted as the petals of a single flower, but the bunch of berries that follow, one from each flower, reveal the actual arrangement. Here they are already developing into berries. This plant is nestled amongst Bead Lilies.

I was orchid hunting when I took the last two pictures. Specifically I was trying to find Pink Lady Slippers in flower. This is a photo of what turned out to be the first of dozens. This individual, well over a foot tall, was growing in a particularly photogenic spot.

The forest of the last three photos surrounds a fen where I encountered another botanical delight; Pitcher Plants. There were no clear views of the modified, insect-trapping, leaves that give these plants their name through the sedges they grew amongst, but their maroon flowers were opening. I was additionally delighted to see and photograph the tiny bee that was on one of this flower’s sepals. I suspect this is some species of solitary bee, but my bee knowledge is limited, unfortunately.

Thanks to the Vermont Atlas of Life on the Vermont Center for Ecostudies I was able to identify these mating dragonflies as Crimson-ringed Whitefaces.

Stunted White Cedar and Tamarack manage to grow in the saturated soils of the fen. Here a Bluejay hunts for food from a branch of the former.

Another day, while birding at home, I had the pleasure of seeing this Blue-headed Vireo pulling what was probably a larval moth of some sort from its silken pupation tent. Many a caterpillar never metamorphoses due to the appetites and foraging skills of birds.

I was fortunate this spring to hear a lot of female American Redstart songs, and even get clear views of this little lady belting it out. The songs of most songbirds in the northern hemisphere are performed by males, but in a few species females sing their own songs as well. Both sexes are strongly territorial during nesting season and this image captures that behavior in this female Redstart.

One day a particularly loud and rapid exchange of Tufted Titmouse calls led my eyes to a whole family of these delightful birds. This juvenile and her siblings were still getting fed by their parents, but were probably quite close to fending for themselves at that point. Here we see adult plumage fully developed, but the fleshy gape at the base of baby birds’ bills is still apparent.

That’s it for this time, folks! Thanks for joining me. If you are reading this on my website or if a friend forwarded this email to you, you can subscribe to my somewhat-monthly newsletters at https://www.geraldlisi.net/ Wishing you inspiring encounters with the wild world until I next share some of mine with you.