Yellow Warbler

Water and Warblers

The attraction of water lures birds in for close viewing all day long. The migrating warblers are the highlight now and I spent as much time as I could this weekend watching. The weather was glorious,and they won't be back with their bright plummage for a year.
The small circulating pond requires regular maintenance and cleaning and earns it's place by providing water for the birds and other animals. The Jays, Titmice, Catbirds, Robins and Sparrows come all day long to drink. The migrating birds come to bathe. In a single weekend, without leaving my backyard, I had close range views of the Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Yellow, Magnolia, Yellow-rumped and Black-and-white warblers, as well as the Baltimore Oriole, Wood Thrush and the Scarlet Tanager. Fantastic.

Woodfrog Pond

Common Yellow-throat

Iris

Azaleas

Warbler in Dogwood

Pinkshell Azalea

Migrating Birds

The first of the migrating warblers have arrived, the early ones this year, as every year, are the Yellow-rumped. The warblers, tanagers, orioles, and cedar waxwings come and go with the bloom of the inch-worms, stopping here in Edgemont for just 10 - 14 days every year. I have seen the orioles stick around for the summer, but the others are only local for a brief tropical-colored show.
They make their way up from Central and South America and use the Bronx River corridor through Westchester. They stop here for the running water in my small pond.

What's In Bloom

Creeping Phlox, Grape Hyacinths, Vinca and some tulips are blooming in the front yard. The tulip selection is pathetic and I won't attempt planting them again until I've gotten over the frustrations of the last couple of seasons. I spent plenty of money and hours planting rivers of tulips in the front beds only to have them devoured by the otherwise adorable chipmunks. I thought I was clever the following year and ordered en masse from an inexpensive catalog and planted again, this time with a generous sprinkling of cayenne pepper from my pantry. Success?
The tulips were not eaten; nor were they as advertised. They emerged pale and puny and not even the colors I ordered. A couple of these little insults are up now.
Dogwood, Redbud, several azalea varieties, Virginia Bluebells, Bleeding Hearts and Trout Lilies are in full bloom out back. Lily-of-the-Valley and 'false' Lily-of-the Valley, and the bugle weed are emerging.

Cultivating Mushrooms

It turns out that the ideal log for inoculating with mushroom spawn are exactly what we have from the tree that came down in the March storm. It is Oak, felled in late winter when the nutrients are rich and flowing, but not yet spent on new growth. The oak logs are now about a month old which happens to be the right age to reduce the chemical defences the trees have for fungi, but not so old to be already invaded by wild fungi and bacteria. And now is the right time to inoculate with several varieties of mushroom. How lucky!
I never would have known this but there was a NY Times article about mushroom cultivation this past week which got me interested, and I read more about it online. So the pile of logs which were becoming a tiresome eyesore out front (waiting for the town to collect) now look like a pile of perfect hosts for mushrooms.
This morning I hauled five 12" diameter logs to the back, and ordered Shiitake, Maitake and Winesap 'plugs' which will be hammered into holes drilled into the logs.
added: a week has gone by and the spawn have not yet arrived.

Viburnum Carlesii

Snapped off a couple of sprigs of Viburnum Carlesii to bring to the office this morning, some from an old plant in the back (40+ years?), and some from a new one I planted 5 years ago - I intentioanlly sought out another for closer to the house. (Actually, two). Until today I thought they were all identical.
The blooms examined side-by-side are clearly different and I think the original one superior. So naturally I’m now obsessed with cloning the old variety and have already secured a low green branch for layering. Did I mis-identify the old viburnum? The original has larger, more rounded petals, clear medium pink on the back sides, blushed pink/white inside. This contrast is well shown off by the buds opening in slow sequence in each cluster. (Not unlike the Yaku rhodies). The new viburnums' buds are white, open at once, are smaller and slightly more square.
Several co-workers stopped dead in their tracks in the hall today, turned back and came over to drink in the clove vanilla fragrance. Old and new are indistinguishable, and unsurpassed, in their perfume.
Note they don't last in vase - 24 hours and they were completely spent.