September 2022
August 31 My friend Alison, who lives in the woods near Haliburton, Ontario, has been seeing a bald blue jay, molting, at her feeders. She sent this photo with stumpy little blue spikes of feathers just coming in on its head. A little embarrassing. September 3 Susan noticed this group of three trees on our walk at the Arb this morning. The one on the left is blossoming while the other two are covered in seed pods. They have a great name: golden rain trees, reflecting their clusters of bright yellow flowers which eventually produce lantern-like seed pods. The Arb acquired these trees from North Korea in 2001; hard to believe they could get them from there today. Walking partway up Bussey Hill we see a hawk flying fast and low under the canopy of the trees, fairly close to us. Exciting! This afternoon, looking over at my neighbor's yard, I see a downy woodpecker perched on the bamboo mat screen hiding his heat pump, looking a bit incongruous t...