03-May-2019
Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus )
Digging away in the dirt. Three of these small ground squirrels were scampering around the Backyard garden this afternoon.
03-May-2019
Lamium
Growing thickly under a stand of staghorn sumacs. At one time, this plant was in the open, but the sumacs have spread and the lamium too. About a decade ago, Claudia and I dug out every lamium plant we could find, and then did it again the following year. The year after that, I dug out some but it was clear it was a losing battle. This is a resilient, non-native species which I think, came in with leaves which were put here at this spot about 20+ years ago. People donated the leaves from their gardens for us to use as mulch and inevitably, some other plants such as this, came in with the mix.
03-May-2019
The ravine
I was struck by the size of the cedars on the other side of the ravine. Some years ago they were planted by volunteers to replace many buckthorns which were removed. The idea was to provide evergreen trees for the winter months, where birds could roost to keep warm. The trees have done very well.
03-May-2019
Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
A grey squirrel and its black phase grey friend, show the difference in colour of this species. There are other colour variations too. Some grey-coloured animals have a distinct russet tinge, and some black phase ones have very rufous tails, or even a rufous tinge all over.
