Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Early July/Nature Notes

Hot and Muggy, but the blossoms in wetland areas are lovely!

Largest square: Cedar waxwings seem to be everywhere. Perhaps they always are and I am just paying more attention this year.

Working clockwise: purple loosestrife  (Lythrum salicaria) - a beautiful but invasive weed that now occurs in every U.S. state except Florida; swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) - a lovely plant visited by bees and butterflies; Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) - also known as lettuce from Hell thistle, which says a LOT, don't you think?; white berries of the red osier dogwood (Cornus servicea) - inedible berries; and heal-all (Prunella vulgaris) - once proclaimed a holy herb that could drive away the devil, but I have never tried it so don't now if it works on ALL devils.

FYI: I list the botanical names because many common names vary from place to place but their Latin names do not.

Please visit Michelle at Rambling Woods for more
NATURE NOTES.

16 comments:

Kerri Farley said...

Great collage!! I've been seeing some Cedar Waxwings too.

Lowell said...

Love those white berries...too bad they're inedible...nice shot of the waxwing, too. Hot and muggy? Sounds like where I live!

Kathy said...

We only have cedar waxwings for about five days in early spring, February or March. They swoop in and scoop up all the berries off our photinia bushes and then merrily and drunkenly start heading north toward your place!

MadSnapper said...

i had to laugh, i had picked my favorite before i read what they were, and of course the lettuce from hell is what i loved.

Darla said...

Loosestrife in every US State? I will have to look for it.

Darla

Rose said...

I wish Cedar Waxwings were that common here!

Paul in Powell River said...

Nice! Hot here finally also, we might get some summer yet!

TexWisGirl said...

love the beautiful thistles and, of course, the waxwing!

Grandma Barb's This and That said...

Love your collage. I have never seen a waxwing around here. I would love to.

kayerj said...

very pretty. We get cedar wax wings when the juniper trees have berries.

LONDONLULU said...

Ooh, another wonderful collage - hot & muggy here too but it's just a hazy heat making everything dull, nothing as beautiful as this!

George said...

We are also having hot, muggy weather, but it's very dry. We don't have the beautiful blossoms you have.

Rambling Woods said...

Hubby was just out pulling purple loosestrife from around the pond, but it is very tough and has long roots...I like that there is swamp milkweed in your area EG...I haven't seen more than one monarch so far and it was a male...Michelle

Carver said...

Lovely nature collage. The waxwings always look so studious to me. Rather like the academics of the bird world.

eileeninmd said...

I love the photo you chose for your collage. The Waxwing is a beautiful bird and the flowers are all lovely. Thanks for sharing, have a great day.

Libby said...

Great mosaic...all your colors seem to match! Really well done! and thanks for giving us the names of everything!

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East Gwillimbury is a rural town less than an hour north of Toronto, Canada's largest city. My family calls me CameraGirl because I take my camera with me wherever I go.