April's Gifts of Nature

We enjoyed many of nature's wonders in the month of April.  During one walk, we happened to hit the jackpot with several never-seen-before or rarely-seen specimens.  There, of course, was also the expected beauties, like:

Review time!  That's dead nettle (Lamium maculatum) on the left and henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) on the right.  Both are edible and nutritious.  Flower nectar is sweet.  Leaves are rich in nutrients.

From the edge of our yard, I peeked down the creek.  I love seeing all the redbud trees (Circa canadensis) blooming!

Violet! (Viola sororia)

A view of part of our front yard

This was exciting for all of us!  This is a rarely seen—I'd never seen one before—Eastern gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor).  It's in the gorgeous gray phase; they can also be seen as green and brown in order to be camouflaged with their surroundings.  The reason they're not often seen is that they tend to stay high in treetops, but they can sometimes be spotted lying on low branches during mating season.  We had walked past this gem. I only saw it when sneaking back from where we'd come to look for a turkey we'd flushed.  More on that later in this post.

A yellow-bellied racer (Coluber constrictor flaviventris), an aggressive, but nonvenomous snake

I got a picture of a tiger beetle (one of many species in the subfamily Cicindelinae, family Carabidae).  We love whenever we're able to see one of these spectacular green iridescent beetles.  It was amazing it stayed around long enough for me to get a picture.

Carpenter ants (Camponotus sp.), not sure of species, going in and out of the hole

Wild plum (Prunus americana) with shelf fungi covered by webbing

I honestly do not know...yet.  I've seen one before, I think.  Anyone know?

Believe it or not, there is a turkey in the above picture.  I blindly shot pictures in its direction, knowing it was about to fly, just hoping I might luck out.  Wild turkeys are so difficult to sneak up on.  They're rarely even seen.

All the above pictures are a select few from one day and one walk.  Below are pictures from other days.

A walk down the road

Rue anemone (Anemonella thalictroides), ranging from white to periwinkle

If I remember correctly, this bird of prey was a red-tailed hawk. Judging by its feathers, I'd bet it is.

It was a delight to watch this squirrel in our yard, with a walnut.  These pictures were taken through a not-perfectly-clean window, though.

Because it stayed mostly hidden while I was taking pictures and video, I can't be certain, but I believe this is most likely an orchard oriole or a Baltimore oriole.  I'd almost bet it is an oriole of some sort because of the beak.  The other black birds with orange do have shorter, straighter beaks.  I've been comparing the sounds on the video footage I took to sounds online and am not certain about anything as of yet.