Birds and flowers in Spring and Early Summer of 2020

A garter snake is a fairly placid snake one can often find in an American garden

A garter snake licks the air to taste the environment.

Our shy garter snake comes out to enjoy the sun as the cool spring enjoys a warm and sunny day.

A garter snake has lovely colors: black, red, yellow, and white.

This little goldfinch guy is enjoying some seeds I put out for him.

A ragged little male goldfinch early in the spring.

I take this to be a female goldfinch, although her colors are very yellow for a female. She seemed to be paired with the male goldfinch in the previous photograph (these two pictures were taken within seconds of each other)

This is the female cardinal who seems to live in our backyard or a neighbor’s backyard.

This male cardinal is the bird we most often notice in our backyard.

A cardinal couple perched together on a fence.

The bluejays are larger birds, and they also sometimes come into our yard

The female house finch is with her mate at our bird feeder

House finches are western birds that have been introduced into the eastern United States

The male house finch seems to be wearing a red hood

The chickadees were more common in past years, but we still see them almost every day

The chickadees have a distinctive sort of beeping sound they make.

The catbird has been a new frequent visitor to our feeders this year.

The catbird has a distinctive sort of call that does indeed resemble the miaoing of a cat.

This male cowbird has a brown head and a dark body

The cowbird stands upon seeds scattered under our birdfeeders

This is a female downy woodpecker

This is a male downy woodpecker

A nuthatch who sometimes visits our feeders.

Another view of that white-breasted nuthatch.

We see the white-throated sparrow a few times each year, but a sighting is uncommon and exciting.

This chipping sparrow is a regular visitor, sometimes blending in with the larger female house sparrows.

A Carolina Wren seeks seeds and nuts at our feeder in our backyard

A Carolina wren is a charming, small bird.

This is a tufted titmouse, a bird we rarely see.

A tufted titmouse looks straight at me as I take the photograph

The titmouse is showing his tuft

The tufted titmouse often lines its hole with fur, and it can take fur from all sorts of animals, and even pluck hair from humans.

You can see why the Robin is also known as a redbreast.

the Mourning dove has a distinctive and plaintive call

The tiny mother hummingbird likes to drink the sugar water we put out for her

This little hummingbird moves very quickly.

We put out sugar water for the hummingbird.

This tiny hummingbird can be quite fierce, but this female is mild.

A female ruby-throated hummingbird who frequently investigates our yard

Jeri enjoys tending the flowers and vegetables in our garden. Here she is on the front porch when the azaleas are in bloom.

This cottontail rabbit likes to hang out in our yard

Wild rabbits are cute, but not as cute as our little dwarf panda bunny, Snowball, who lived with us from 2008 to 2014.

The chipmunks gather seeds in our yard. This one is perched on the rim of the container holding some basil.

The chipmunks must be alert, and they always seem a bit nervous to me.

The stripes of the chipmunk make it a distinctive ground squirrel

The chipmunk likes to survey the yard.

Some squirrels grew up in the birdhouse we used to have on the maple tree; the birdhouse finally fell down and was destroyed, but the squirrels still stay in our backyard.

Here is a squirrel in the clover

These little flowers seem quite fragile. They blossom in May.

Our alazlea blooms in May and looks wonderful for about three or four weeks.

The Forsythia offers us the first showy blossoms of the spring, often blooming in March around the same time the maple trees bloom.

Sometimes after a spring rain, we find mushrooms growing in our yard.

In mid-April we had some unusually late snow, which looked lovely on the daffodils.

Here is one of our daffodils in the sun

We have more white daffodils than yellow ones.

This daffodil seemed especially vigorous.

I didn't plant any daffodils or tulips in the fall of 2019, so all these flowers were from two years ago or earlier.

The hyacinths bloom shortly after the crocus, and around the same time as the earliest daffodils.

That snow we had in mid-April fell on the hyacinths.

This blue hyacinth looks lovely with the white hyacinth behind it.

Most of our hyacinths are pink or pink-and-white.

These hyacinths give off a strong perfume.

The grape hyacinths make a better impression when they are planted in masses.

I think this is a greenland tulip, but it looks more peach-colored than pink.

Here is a pink tulip. The scent of tulips is one of my favorite scents.

Late season tulip with yellow and red.

An early red tulip.

A few of the tulips we have growing under a maple tree in our front yard.

The early evening sun casts a warm light on this pink tulip.

The sticky and short-lived snow of April piles up on this early tulip.

A type of Darwin tulip.

Here is one of our yellow tulips.

A fish statue in Allerton Park. The hedges in the maze garden were being trimmed, and probably looked much nicer about an hour after I took this picture.

Some of the tulips in our back yard.

We have many violets in our backyard.

The north side of our front and back yards has many violets like these.

I like the sunken garden at Allerton Park

This is the pathway through the garden of Chinese musicians toward the sunken gardens at Allerton Park.

We have many purple columbine that grow close to our house.

The purple columbine just started growing, we never planted any.

This iris was growing at Allerton Park, but we have many in our neighborhood in May.

The iris blossoms flourish in May, but some linger into June, like this one.

Here is an iris blossom in our yard after a rain. Our irises were a gift from the blood bank I picked up after donating blood many years ago.

Jeri brought some peony bulbs from Oregon for our 27th wedding anniversary, and they looked good this year.

This is one of the peonies in our front yard.

I was delighted with our new peonies, which provided some fantastic blossoms for a couple weeks at the end of May and into the first days of June.

Even the weeds can have delicate little flowers to admire.

We have many squash and pumpkins growing in our garden this year.

Yellow flower at Allerton Park.

Pink yarrow blooming at the southeast corner of our front porch.

Yellow flower at Allerton Park.

Another bright yellow flower at Allerton Park.

Purple blossoms of beardtongue (Penstemons), Allerton Park

This bumblebee seems to have found some good Penstemon.

Penstemon species come in many colors: usually blue, purple, or pink, but sometimes white, red, orange, and mixes of those colors.

A wisteria blossom cluster at Allerton Park. The sweet-smelling wisteria is a wonderful flower, but it blooms for a very short time at the end of May and into early June around here.

The Lamb's Ear plant can have flowers like these (Allerton Park)

Dark blue spiderwort, a type of flower that grows in forests around here in June.

Aloe blossoms at Allerton Park.

I like the rich purple color on this Clematis

Delightful pink flower at Allerton Park.

Lovely pink flower (maybe a cascabela or oleander) at Allerton Park. Poisonous, but pretty.

Allerton Park has a little Hosta garden tucked away between two brick walls.

A small flower, but upon close inspection, it really is fantastic.

This might be a Kansas double peony.

More of the Kansas double peonies.

Allerton Park has the best peony garden I've ever seen. Try to check it out in late May sometime.

Kansas double peony

Victorian Blush double peony

close-up view of a Chiffon Parfait peony

Probably a Dinner Plate peony, but might be a Reine Deluxe peony, I'm not sure. To me, the Dinner Plate, Reine Deluxe, Chiffon Parfait, and Victorian Blush peonies all look pretty much the same.

Dinner plate peony

Sweet Shelly peony

Belvidere Princess peony

This one peony was standing alone by itself.  Maybe it is a Golden Glow peony.

This is is one of our peonies we grew at Bisharat (our home)   

Festiva Pixie peony

Candy Stripe peony, or else a Kirinmaru peony, or possibly a Poppy Flemish Antique or Cai Xia peony.

Maybe Fern Leaf peonies

Charles Burgess peony