Mayapples, Phlox, Bluebells and More....

Spring always happens so quickly that before I know it, I haven't posed the half of it!   This is just what I photographed on April 19:

 Large Flowered Trillium

The Large-Flowered Trillium was a little early, perhaps because this one was near the edge of our yard--not in the cove where most of them bloom on our land.

Mayapple

The Mayapple is one of my favorites and are just starting to bloom in the last day or two.  

 Wood Anemone

With Bloodroot and Toothwort finished, the Wood Anemone is a welcome sight.  The spring beauties also are still blooming, masses of them throughout the woods.

Redbud were in full bloom...

 Virginia Bluebells

After my walk in our woods, I decided to drive down to Walker Creek to enjoy the Bluebells. They seemed to be in full bloom.

I was disappointed to see so much trash on Rye Hollow Road along Walker Creek.  I wasn't able to clean it up during the community clean-up.  Back at the house, I emailed a friend and we were going to pick up the trash later during the week.

 This was how Walker Creek looked early on April 19.  Later in the afternoon, it started raining and raining.   I am not sure how much because I did not put my rain gauge out until 9 p.m.   On Monday morning, the gauge measured over an inch of rain.

 Walker Creek along Rye Hollow Rd.    April 20, 2015  2 p.m.

 By Monday afternoon, Walker Creek had flooded over Rye Hollow Road.  I was a little surprised but the ground was already saturated and creeks were running strong before this rainstorm.  

So, I went yesterday and saw that all the trash along the road was gone.  This is not good because the trash was picked up by the flood.  The trash then flowed into the New River and most of it, if not washed up on riverbanks, will end up in the Gulf of Mexico, all the way being a hazard for wildlife.    Next year, I will do my best to pick up the trash before the spring floods.

On Monday evening April 20, I attended a lecture by Jane Goodall at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.   She made me realize that everyone can make a difference.  It does not have to be big but every little bit helps, like cleaning up a creek every year.

Nature's Fury: Floods, Winter Critters, and Dead Bees

My husband and I went to Death Valley last week to escape the fierce winter in southwest Virginia (more on this trip in the next post). While we were gone, the weather warmed up and all the winter snow melted. Then, 3 inches of rain fell Friday night, flooding many parts of our county.

Floods


Flooded Walker Creek March 13, 2010

By 1:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, this creek was backed up from Walker Creek which was higher than I ever remember it. From here it is almost 100 feet to Walker Creek, well over the road.


I zoomed in to see the raging Walker Creek.


My neighbor's house flooded--something that hasn't happened since the mid-80s. Creeks all over the county were over their banks while a mudslide closed highway 460--a major thoroughfare.

Winter Critters

Snow covered the ground since late December. Even with the freezing weather, the creek in the valley ran, attracting wildlife during the day.


Wild Turkeys February 19, 2010

Several days, I saw a flock of wild turkeys drinking water out of the same creek that raged last Saturday. I also saw deer foraging during the day in the valley--a little unusual but the only pasture that was green was along this small creek.



Once I got out of the car to take more photos, the turkeys fled into the cedars. When we returned from our trip, I noticed the turkeys were roosting in the trees around our house, something they started no doubt while we were away.


Fox Squirrel March 1, 2010

A regular visitor to our feeder this winter was the Fox Squirrel. We usually only get gray squirrels so this large squirrel was welcome. You can tell the snow had melted by the first of March behind the squirrel---that was only on the south-facing slopes. The north sides of the mountains were deep with snow.



Here you can see the size difference between the fox and gray squirrels although I have seen gray squirrels larger than this one.



American Possum February 20, 2010

Possums came during the day and foraged what they could on the ground and in my compost pile. At night time, the raccoon would come if I didn't put the bird feeders in the shed.

A small possum came near my beehive one morning so I went and chased it with a stick. He was so frightened, he climbed high up in a small tree. That night he expired and his dead body is still in the tree, only attracting a tufted titmouse bird which plucked some fur for his nest. I am still waiting for the vultures or a red-tailed hawk to come get it. I felt bad about scaring the poor possum to death.


Dead Bees

Last Friday, I inspected my beehive and as I suspected, the bees had died. I last saw them on February 21 when a few were out on a somewhat warm, 50 degree day. Since then, the weather turned cold until March 5 when we left on a trip for the week. I called my mentor who told me he had lost almost half of his 12 hives also. What he thought happened was that there was not enough warm days for the bees to break their winter cluster and eat their stored honey so they starved. He said one dead cluster had honey within 2 inches of it. He told me it wasn't my fault.

I do think my bees starved also. He instructed me to remove the dead bees and close up the hives so flies couldn't get into it. When I did, I noticed that the bees in the top of the hive were filled with a yellow liquid--so they hadn't starved but the ones in the cluster were completely dry so they probably starved. But, I might have caused it by putting a feeder (2:1 syrup) on the top. The top medium hive had plenty of honey which I wasn't able to check because of the freezing temperatures (opening to check weight would have killed the bees). I noticed the honey bees had filled the central space of that box with the syrup. The winter cluster had moved down to between the 1st and 2nd box (3 boxes total). There, they were far from the honey stores. With the constant freezing temperatures for so long, they had no chance. I believe if they had stayed up in the top box, they would have been better insulated and close to the honey stores. My mentor says they probably would have starved anyway.

I also wonder about the 8-frame medium box--does it need to be better insulated on the outside for our winters? The weather was indeed very cold but we did not experience any bitterly cold temperatures.

I did learn a lot from keeping bees this year and had ordered another package of bees to start a second hive. So, I will use it to fill this hive. Next year, I hope there will be intermittent warm days in the winter so I can check the hive. I will resist the urge to put liquid feeder on top of the hive. I feel sad about losing my bees but don't want to give up on this hobby.

Nature can be cruel sometimes.

Flooding before another Snow Storm

On Sunday night, several inches of rain fell on top of the saturated ground, resulting in another flood. This view above of our valley is of an intermittent creek that flows into Big Walker Creek which rose above its banks to flood the road. Our road actually had this creek flowing over it for several days before VDOT finally fixed it. The creek will probably stay until late spring, attracting waterfowl. I have seen a Great Blue Heron and another shore bird fly off when I drove past.

I made a fire in the wood stove to warm the house in advance of another snowstorm tonight and tomorrow (7-11 inches predicted). I am glad it's snow instead of the ice that Oklahoma received. This is the third snowstorm this winter and all have happened on the weekend. We also have had two floods, one right after the Dec. 5 storm) and the one this week. It's been a wet winter this year.

The winter seems more like the ones we had when we first moved out here in the mid-1980s. We got a lot of snow back then. I remember we both drove vehicles that did not have 4WD and we couldn't make it up the driveway for weeks at a time (with a 1/3 mile driveway that was a real hassle). We soon traded those in for 4WDs.

I hope to take some photos on Sunday when the sun will be out after the snow.

Rain much needed --- Flood not so much!

We received 2.5 inches of rain Friday and Saturday night. Our intermittent stream was flowing for the first time in ages. Peepers were loud in the valley Saturday evening.

On Sunday, I drove to town and when I tried to return, Walker Creek had flooded over the road. Although I was only about a mile from the house, I had to make a big detour on another road, going 10 miles out of my way. Usually, that amount of rain would not cause a flash flood but perhaps there was a lot more rain further up the creek which originates in North Carolina, flowing north into the New River (which also flows north).


Walker Creek: April 7 (one day after flood)

This is normally a riffle with exposed rocks.



This view shows a little of Rye Hollow Road. I was surprised how fast everything turns back to normal.

On another note, I bought a macro lens which arrived yesterday so I took a few pictures to see how it works.


Spring Beauty: April 8

This tiny bee or fly? was just the right size for the 3/8" size flower. One thing I noticed about this photo is that two areas are in focus--the flower in the foreground and the leaf behind the second flower. Why is that?

This is my first macro lens so any tips on using a macro lens with an SLR digital camera will be appreciated. So far, I like it because it will inspire me to look closer at nature's wonders.