Wednesday, July 1, 2015

A Second Look--June 30, 2015

Summer was here in all of its glory this week. Heat, humidity, thunderstorms, flowers, bugs, busy birds and bees, and thankfulness for air conditioning.

Here are a few things I saw this week 
during a Second Look.

Day lily


Gouty oak gall. This was caused by a small wasp and may be a couple of years old. Apparently these balls contain resin and tannic acid and have been used for medicine and other things over the years.



Bee on marigold


Unlike the bee above that was flitting from flower to flower, this one crawled in and out of the center of the marigold several times.



Fungus



The Japanese Beetles are out now. So far they aren't too bad.


The frequent thunderstorms are bringing down lots of limbs.



Trumpet lily with lamium and Japanese painted fern



Since last week, the wren has lined its nest with feathers and filled it with four eggs.



I think this wren is associated with the above nest.



The bluebird has added one more egg since last week.




2 comments:

  1. I never realized, or considered, that a bird didn't lay all its eggs at basically the same time. I see you and I had similar weather with those branches down. Hopefully the worst of the storms has passed for both of our areas.

    Those marigolds must have tasted delicious for those bees to spend so much time in just one flower.

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    Replies
    1. This bluebird seemed especially slow at laying. They usually lay about one a day and don't start sitting on them until they are all laid. That is because she wants all of them to hatch at the same time.

      I hope the storms are over also, but it is summer.

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