Johnny Timbers Strikes Again!

Johnny Timbers tree service has been a regular in our neighborhood for the last few years. Ever since Hurricane Isabel passed through Southeast Virginia in 2003, my neighbors have been keen to cut down trees whenever they anticipate a problem. You can see that this very tall longleaf pine was giving my across-the-cul-de-sac neighbor a little indigestion.

I think I can say with confidence that Johnny Timbers is a great company to work with. The guys are young and professional. The guy who climbs the trees is a cowboy. Amazing to watch. My husband says he hopes he gets paid a lot.

They cut the branches one by one. Ropes are tied so that when a branch is cut, it doesn't fall but is lowered carefully. The guys on the ground cut it up and clean up the yard before the next limb comes down. As we are blessed with a lot of very tall trees, I'm sure Johnny Timbers will be back again soon.

My neighborhood was a farm through the mid-20th century. Most of the bigger and taller trees are about 50 to 70 years old. I counted the rings in the one that fell from my yard onto my neighbor's sun porch during Hurricane Isabel and there were about 75 rings. My house is on the ravine side of the former farm. Intermittent streams flow into the headwaters of Mill Creek, a tributary of the James River.

March Blooms

Wild Columbine

I was looking through my photos to see just when the leaves popped out last year. On my drive to Gloucester and back today, I noticed how the trees were green and red, all ready to let lose their pollen and tiny leaves. If you look back to my Woodpecker Tree blog post from early April 2010, you'll see that the tiny leaves are out, so we must not be too far ahead this year. A couple of weeks ago, things were really moving along, botanically speaking, but our recent cold spell is keeping the buds from advancing.

Hydrangea

I took a few pictures yesterday so that I would have a record for next year. The wild columbine is from a plant I bought at the Virginia Native Plant Society sale a few years ago. A friend told me that she had collected the seeds from New Quarter Park years ago and continues to contribute plants from them to the VNPS sale. I've divided and divided and spread it all around my yard too, so look forward to seeing it in it's new locations this year.

The hydrangea came from Mom and Dad's house. They have lots that have been propagated from some they collected from Nana's yard in Mathews (she died in 1992). We dug one up in the fall. I split it into three pieces for replanting in my yard and all are faring well.

Golden Ragwort

The golden ragwort came from New Quarter Park too. In May 2005 when I started working there, the woodlands were full of it. The next year we dug up some that had sprung up in the trails. A couple of plants followed me home. I love the yellow flowers but, unfortunately, so do the deer. I guess those plump purple buds just look too good and fresh after a long winter without such new vegetation.  

Lungwort (see comment)

This dainty little purple and pink flower was purchased before I was a convert to native plants. However, I ask Phillip Merritt what it was last year and he said that it was native. Whew. He told me the name of the little bugger too, but I can't remember it now. It's one of those lovely plants with bladder or wort in its name. 

Dogwood

The dogwood is leafing out too. A couple of the dogwood trees in my yard almost perished in the heat last summer. Their leaves fell off in August. Let's hope for a little less warmth this summer. We can hope, but ...

In a few days I'll share some photos from my vegetable garden. The tomatoes are 8 inches tall inside and ready to go out soon. I planted carrots, sugar peas, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, parsley, and dill outdoors on a warm day last week. I hope I didn't jump the gun and that they can stand a couple more cool nights.

Bird Brained Behavior: Why is that bird flying into my window over and over?

While dressing today, I wondered what that bonk, bonk, bonking was. It sounded like someone throwing a ball over and over against the side of the house. Then, I look toward the window and what did I see? Poor Robin Red-breast looking at me. Actually, he probably wasn't looking at me at all: the bird was seeing his shadow and defending his turf.

As a traumatic brain injury survivor, I get a little anxious whenever I see brains being bashed about, human or bird brains. So I looked it up on the Cornell Lab site, and here's what I found under the frequently asked questions:

Q. A bird keeps flying into my window, on purpose! Why is it doing this? I'm afraid it will hurt itself. What should I do?


A. The behavior you mention often occurs in spring and early summer. This is the time of year when most birds establish their territories, find a mate, lay eggs, and raise young. To ensure success, they defend their territory aggressively, and will attack and try to drive away any bird they view as a possible competitor or a threat to their young. When they see their own reflection in your window, they assume they're seeing a competitor and attack the image. The species most likely to do this are those that nest close to houses, such as American Robins, Northern Cardinals, bluebirds, California Towhees, Chipping Sparrows, and Song Sparrows. Both males and females engage in this.

Fortunately, this behavior usually dissipates within a few days or, at most, weeks. But while it lasts, the bird may exhaust or even hurt itself, and it distracts the bird from far more important activities. And this behavior can be extremely annoying for the people witnessing it.

To get rid of the reflection, you must alter the outside of the window. You can cover it with netting, fabric, or newspaper, or smear soap streaks on the glass. When you're no longer seeing the bird nearby you can remove this. Often, rubber snakes frighten birds away, at least temporarily—although like any object that doesn't move, the birds get used to seeing them. Helium-filled Mylar balloons on 3–4 foot strings make movements and cast glaring light that birds find confusing and even alarming. Setting a few near a window will frighten away most birds.

We have more information about protecting your birds from windows here.

First Hermit Thrush

Hermit Thrush

On Monday and Tuesday mornings I do my Project Feeder Watch watching. On Monday, when turning my computer on at about 7 a.m., I looked left, out toward my feeder and saw some movement on a limb past the feeders. I knew it was something a little different, so grabbed my glasses and binoculars without moving my gaze from the "something different." When I focused, I was rewarded with this view of a hermit thrush, who kindly posed long enough for me to get my camera in position. The picture is a little fuzzy, but so am I at 7 a.m.!

My watching was spotty on Monday and Tuesday as I worked at my computer taking glances now and then, and also listened in the yard as I continue to prepare my garden. Here's the list of species I reported this week:

Mourning Dove	10
Downy Woodpecker	1
Blue Jay	1
Carolina Chickadee	1
Tufted Titmouse	1
White-breasted Nuthatch	1
Carolina Wren	2
Hermit Thrush	1
American Robin	2
Yellow-rumped Warbler	2
White-throated Sparrow	3
Dark-eyed Junco	2
Northern Cardinal	5
Red-winged Blackbird	4
Common Grackle	1
House Finch	4
American Goldfinch	6

Happy St. David's Day

Yesterday I took a couple of photos of the first daffodils to open in my yard in honor of St. David's Day and my Welsh ancestry. There are at least a hundred more set to bloom all over my yard soon. According to an analysis of my Dad's Y-DNA and mtDNA, I'm from the Haplogroup I1 on my paternal side and Haplogroup U5 on my paternal Nana's side, genes well-represented by those of others with a mid-Wales heritage.

Although we don't know exactly where our paternal ancestors came from, our closest genetic cousins -- of the surname Evans! -- have a paper trail to Montgomeryshire, Wales. Our surname, Lewis, is also seen in the rural mid-Wales region in various combinations with Evans, such as Lewis Evans and Evan Lewis. People with these surnames are frequently seen in the Virginia Chesapeake region. Families related to seafaring trades (sailors, ship and boat builders, lighthouse keepers, harbor pilots, and Merchant Mariners)and watermen from Smith Island as well as the Eastern Shore and Middle and Northern peninsula of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay share our heritage. (Read a short article here for more on the Welsh and their surnames in America.)

Seventy-five percent of the 17th-century immigrants to Virginia's Chesapeake came as indentured servants. These largely rural and landless folk sought opportunity and a fresh start in the New World, and so indentured themselves or were indentured by others. It's very likely that individuals from mid-Wales took the Severn River to the port of Bristol and from there emigrated to Virginia, where the Chesapeake Bay, with two tributary rivers named Severn, looked an awful lot like home. Those who settled in Mathews County, Virginia, (which was part of Gloucester until 1791 and where my ancestors settled and lived until the mid-twentieth century) found others with Welsh roots, especially around Milford Haven and Gwynn's Island.

So I claim Wales on St. David's Day much as my children claim their paternal Scots-Irish heritage on St. Patrick's Day.

Also, I hail from Gloucester County, Virginia, where the Daffodil is celebrated each spring. An early-twentieth century entrepreneur turned the soil of Gloucester's wild daffodils into an industry. Why were the golden bulbs already growing wild there? Perhaps John Lewis (Haplogroup R1a, so not a relation in a genealogically-significant timeframe) brought the first daffodils, or maybe Gloucester plantsman John Clayton exchanged bulbs with his colleagues in the UK. Perhaps an ancestor of mine was the first to plant a daffodil bulb from the "land of our fathers" in the soil of the "land of the life worth living."