Went for a short morning walk along the Rivanna with people that know birds. They heard or saw white throated sparrows, carolina wrens, tufted titmouse, a fish crow, american crows, a bald eagle, mallards, canada geese, a red shouldered hawk, cardinals, mockingbirds, a ruby crowned kinglet, downy woodpecker, a pileated woodpecker, a red fox, hermit thrush, bluebird, yellow-rumped warbler, raven, sparrow, white-breasted nuthatch, goldfinch, song sparrow, Carolina chickadee, flicker, red-bellied woodpecker, catbird, robin, towhee, starlings.
I saw runners and unidentified flying objects.
The dog walkers are still leaving bags of dog dung on the side of the trail. People too precious to carry the load while they walk.
Category: flora
Platanus × acerifolia
This London Plane tree didn’t get the memo, wasn’t aware that it was declining/dead.
scheduled for removal
{3:1} To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
{3:2} A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted;
{3:3} A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
{3:4} A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
{3:5} A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
{3:6} A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; {3:7} A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
{3:8} A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.-Ecclesiastes
Nymphaeaceae
water lily – an aquatic plant of the family Nymphaeaceae.
The water-lily has a special place in Tamil poetics, where it is considered symbolic of the grief of separation; it is considered to evoke imagery of the sunset, the seashore and the shark.–Wikipedia
canopy
3,800-acre tract of publicly owned virgin forest in Graham County, North Carolina, named in memory of Joyce Kilmer, best known for his poem “Trees”.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer
Pines in situ and repurposed
Marmota monax in clover
Clover (Trifolium), or trefoil, is a genus of about 300 species of plants in the leguminous pea family Fabaceae.–Wikipedia
The challenge, gaining access to a tomato plant in a welded wire enclosure in a raised bed.
quercus macrocarpa
The leaves are 7–15 cm (3–6 in) long and 5–13 cm (2–5 in) broad, variable in shape, with a lobed margin. Most often, the basal 60% is narrower and deeply lobed, while the apical 40% is wider and has shallow lobes or large teeth. The flowers are greenish-yellow catkins, produced in the spring. The acorns are very large, 2–5 cm (0.8–2 in) long and 2–4 cm (0.8-1.5 in) broad, having a large cup that wraps much of the way around the nut, with large overlapping scales and often a fringe at the edge of the cup.–Wikipedia
Bur oaks bear seed up to an age of 400 years, older than reported for any other American oak. The minimum seed-bearing age is about 35 years, and the optimum is 75 to 150 years (5,16). Silvics Manual Volume 2. Hardwoods. USDA
defying expectations.
nineteen
It was a Republican president who drove the largest expansion of parkland ever (YAY! TR! Teddy!). It was a Republican who started up the EPA.
How many Republicans can you fit under a single tree in a parking lot? At least nineteen.
When did it become a bad thing in the Republican mind to be an environmentalist?
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or sometimes USEPA) is an agency of the U.S. federal government which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.[2] The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate.– Wikipedia
Lagerstroemia
Local folk, waiting for the Republican gubernatorial ticket, in the shade of crape myrtles.