Frozen turkey

A group of turkeys is apparently either a flock, or a rafter. Let's go with the latter as the word of the day. At least for me!

It looks like a rafter was up and about last night, as evidenced by their footprints all over the snow that started falling in the evening:

My friendly neighborhood rafter surely does not seem to be deterred by a few inches of snow, though. While they have made a daily appearance for several weeks now, and have spent significant amounts of time rooting around my bird feeder and elsewhere, they showed up like clockwork today after nearly seven inches of powder blanketed the region overnight.

Only this time, they stayed on the road (which had been plowed) and steered clear of the yard:

I learned a few days ago that a rafter usually has only one male. This guy was preening away to distract from the lack of food on the road surface:

Trust this one female turkey to throw caution to the wind and plow into the yard! Must have been one hungry bird:

Later in the day, I saw the entire rafter on the side of the house, where the snow had melted enough to expose some of the ground, and they had a field day raking up the soil in search of... frozen worms?!

A thankful day

There is much to be thankful for in this world of ours. These wild turkeys, for instance, must be thankful to be in a vegetarian's yard on Thanksgiving Day!

A dash of blue

The drab environment is occasionally splashed with brilliant blues and reds. A gang of blue jays descended on our feeder and proceeded to monopolize it and the ground around it for the next half hour or so.

I recently read (thanks to two very funny and informative bird books* by Mike O'Connor) that blue jays often store seeds in their throats and cart them away for future consumption. here is a view of such behavior:

An action shot of a jay at work:

Scouting the ground (for fallen seeds or acorns?) while other "family" members sampled the feeder fare:

Showing off the blues:

"Why are you staring at me?"

*The two books reference above are:

M. O'Connor (1997) "Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? And Other Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask."

M. O'Connor (2013) "Why Do Bluebirds Hate Me? More Answers to Common and Not-So-Common Questions about Birds and Birding."

The garden has gone to the birds!

After spending the spring and summer trying to protect the flowering plants from wildlife attacks, it is time now to sit back and enjoy the... wildlife! The bird feeder easily draws in the fauna of the winged variety (and a few non-flying squirrels for variety). The relatively drab background of browns and yellows causes a blending of feathers into the fading foliage.

This downy woodpecker has decided to give our house structure a break, and eat seeds for a while:

A tufted titmouse explores our "seedy" neighborhood:

The titmouse does a great jobs of sharing with a black-capped chickadee (the Massachusetts state bird):

Nature's pest control army is quite a hoot

A few nights ago, I was awakened by a haunting noise from outside my window, and realized they might be owls. Short bursts of three hoots, followed by silence, then the hoots again. I was too sleepy though to get up and investigate.

The birds were in fine form again last night despite the winter cold and a light rain. Here is a short clip of what sounds like two Great Horned Owls. The background noise is that of the rain drumming on my porch and roof:

[Great Horned Owl duet]

Day was about to break, yet it was still too dark to see the birds. But I think I know which direction the sounds came from.

I hope to put a face to the voice some time soon!

The gardening season winds down

But ever so slowly! Mother Nature is fooling her own as the flora grapple with the unseasonably warm weather (the high today is about 73 degrees Fahrenheit, or roughly 23 degrees Celcius).

To bloom or not to bloom, that is the question.

I have a yellow rose in bloom, and some pink rose buds in the works. The dahlias are doing better than ever, with each plant sporting three or four flowers instead of one or two. The deer are staying warm at home, leaving the unattended and unprotected flowers alone.

There is also a profusion of yellow from one bush that I do not remember planting. It looks like a Black-eyed Susan, but the ones I planted are long done for the season:

Here is an unexpected harvest of beans from our deck:

The tomatoes are also yet to disappear, with many green bunches still hanging off the vines as the leaves slowly whither away.

The pesky chipmunks are cleverer, though. They are skittering around the yard in a frenetic rush to store more acorns. They are also using the delayed winter to explore my yard in greater detail, burrowing humongous holes in yet-to-be-staked territory. Like they say in America: "Drill, baby, drill!" 

A "Deer Diary" moment

It appears to have now become a bit too cold for the deer to venture about freely, and they have finally left the hardy hibiscus alone long enough to produce a couple of buds! An entire summer of deer salad existence is thus vindicated just ephemerally in the fall!

I have high hopes for the second bud too, seen below as it just prepares to unfurl:

Dinner(plate) is served!

A bright "dinner-plate" dahlia, about 8 inches (roughly 20 centimeters) in diameter, adorned our dining table last night:

A few slightly smaller flowers, one in pure white and another in a stunning double-color pattern:

You never know what you might get from these bulb grab-bags, but these seem to be worth saving at the end of the season.

Sedum in bloom

As fall sets in and the plants prepare for a winter vacation, this sedum is hogging attention from a nice, shady spot between some taller shrubs:

Vertical garden mania

I am seeing vertical gardens much more frequently these days. Here is one in the lobby of the Westin-BWI hotel in Baltimore, Maryland:

This one is from the international airport at Mumbai, India:

And an impressively tall one from the Museum of Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

'Tis the season for winter berries

Fresh berries on our dogwood, while the oaks shed their acorns in a constant staccato attack on our roof! Where are those pesky squirrels and chipmunks when you need them?

Jasmine!

One of our jasmines took to the deck atmosphere better than being cooped up indoors, and has just started blooming:

One man went to mow...

As I powered up my lawn mower, I was suddenly reminded of the song I learned in fourth grade or so:

One man went to mow... 

Went to mow a meadow, 

One man and his dog, 

Went to mow a meadow.

Please supply your own tune to go with the words above :-)

Even the most scraggly and patchy grass looks like a manicured lawn after a fresh mow!

Merry and golden

Marigolds at home in their planters:

The occasional rains have compensated for my lack of attention to the watering:

Moringa

The name has a musical ring to it. The beginnings of a moringa (Moringa oleifera) tree, started from seeds:

The three saplings will have to remain in pots and shunted between the indoors and the outdoors, given the climate in Boston. This might curtail or probably eliminate their fruit output, but the leaves are still a major nutrient factory. The fruit pods, known as drumsticks in India, are a culinary favorite. A sample image is shown below:

The native name in Tamil (a language from South India) is murungakkai:

Pyramid scheme in the kitchen garden

Presenting, a pyramid scheme that is delicious rather than dangerous:

Fall colors of a different kind

As we wait in anticipation of the customary leaf color changes, here are some floral colors that are persevering as the yard begins to get colder:

Sunshine on the deck

A lone sunflower in a pot last season fell back into the pot and generated numerous plants this year. Here's the first bloom:

Here's a different variety that prefers height. A long-shot that puts the height into perspective, and a close-up:

Here is a very nice image of a sunflower seedling yet to shake off the seed coat:

Late-Summer Roses

Sudden burst of color after a dormant stretch. Perhaps it was the rains!

Sunlight mystery

Here's an intriguing outcome: I split a batch of Wandering Jew (Tradescantia pallid) into two identical pots and placed them near a window that faces the east. I watered them sporadically but equally. The pots are sitting under the same grow light. Yet one grows vigorously while the other remains small. Also, the leaves in the pot on the left show a lot of green on the top, while the leaves in the pot to the right are pink on both sides. Any thoughts on why this is happening? Is it the angle of sunlight, maybe?

The Green Deck-Pantry

Some Malabar spinach (Basella alba) off the creeper, and chard (Beta vulgaris), from the containers on our deck:

Tomatoes!

Some decent success, as always, with the tomatoes:

How do they get those entirely ripened tomatoes on vine in the grocery stores? They always ripen one at a time in my yard!