Hairstreaks and mystery wildflower

Sunday afternoon I was walking along our road. We have lots of White Milkweed growing wild along the road, more than I have seen elsewhere. Happened to find this Juniper Hairstreak on an Ox-eyed Daisy, done that photo many times before. Then it moved to the White Milkweed and stuck to it like glue and allowed many photos. Got to love these dime sized hairstreaks!

Here the Juniper Hairstreak is joined by a longhorn beetle. The flower head here to give you prospective is maybe 2 inches across.

Along our driveway I found tow male Banded Hairstreaks fighting over perching rights on these leaves. They are single brood hairstreaks and you can only find them for 3-4 weeks every year, a delight to find.

I found a handful of these flowers growing in the woods where they logged out some of the Lobolly pines and oaks. Can't recall seeing this 3-4 foot tall wildflower before anybody know what it is?

Below is our newest snake a Northern Watersnake, Nerodia sipedonit  just over 2 foot long. It spent all of Sunday perched on that limb in the pond. As you can see the pond is over run with waterlilies.

Spring is getting nearer!

Sunday was beautiful, the crocuses really opened up. Below is the Flower Record crocus I planted in 2009. Wondering what this will look like in a few years.

Pickwick is also planted with the Flower Record, one of my favorites for sure. Both these crocus we have had others in the yard since I have lived here almost 15 years.

Last fall I planted snowdrops, here are the first blooms. Hoping the double ones will open soon, they were expensive.

Today I worked in Durham and was outside painting it was 80 degrees. I had an Eastern Comma butterfly land on me! Two butterfly species in February, certainly not unheard of here in North Carolina. Meg saw a Cabbage White in the school garden today also. Mid day I watched a pair of Red-tailed Hawks mating in a tree about 100 foot from where I was working!

Our cat Valentine was studying the ground  when I got home, she had found an immature Black Racer snake, my first snake of the year also. I took this photo and placed it where she could not find it. The ID on this was done by looking under the chin, the white is only under the chin, so it has to be a Black Racer. If the whole underside had been white it would have been a Rat Snake.

Speaking of the devil, here is Valentine sitting in one of Meg's house plants. Grumpy pees in them, we usually cover the soil so no cats can sit in them. Valentine looked very comfortable.

Today I'm cleaning out the work van and getting a load of sand in the trailer. Getting ready for the designing stage of our bottle walls. Should be a busy day. It stormed last evening so no watering is needed for several days, and the high temps are history also. Maybe some of the seeds planted a week ago Sunday will emerge.

Our first spring camellia Crimson Candles, soon there will be 40-50 blooms. This is our second year with this camellia. Speaking of camellias my seedlings I have 4, one did not make it. The one I posted a photo of has 4 leaves, one the size of a quarter already.

 Our second year with muscari "Golden Fragrance '. It has not multiplied at all, maybe the compost I put over it will surge some new growth next year. The bulbs for this are the size of daffodil bulbs.

 Here is 'Red Lady along with Blue Lady they were our first hellebores. If I'm correct we planted these in March of 2009. Both plants will have 6-8 blooms this year.

One last piece of exciting news. Sunday we mounted one of Meg's old blue bird boxes on a fence post in the back yard. I just saw a pair of blue birds checking it out. Our credit union has blue bird boxes for $10 sponsored by a bird bird society. I'm heading out there to mount the one I picked up yesterday it right now.

Penny's Bend Nature Preserve

Today Meg and I took a late mid afternoon walk at Penny's Bend Nature Preserve. For those of you that do nor know about Penny's Bend it is this large horseshoe bend in the Eno River and it has some unique plant associations. A very pleasant place to spend some time in Durham, NC.

A male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus on Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa
The link above takes you to my page about this butterfly.

A male Spicebush Swallowtail, Papilio troilus on Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa
The link above takes you to my page about this butterfly.

Northern Copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix mokeson

We found this on a gravel road on Saturday a little over a mile from our house. No he was not happy to see me, nor was Meg as I took this photo.
Usually we see these venomous snakes on the roads during the summer at night, this guy was out mid day. I have never in 12 years found one here on the property, the neighbor across the street called me about one she found in her yard about a month ago. She caught it a drove it to a wilder place to live.

This is my new carpenter's helper, he's called Snoozy the Possum! This morning he was sleeping next to my carpenter shop. I had a little project I was working on and he was 6-8 foot away the entire time sleepy away while I cut 36 boards using the circular saw, table saw which I drug past him and set up to rip my boards and the electric sander.He did move about 6 inches twice to hide better, but he had to get in his beauty rest and was not concerned about me even when the focusing light hit him when I took this day light lit photo from a foot away.

Other wildlife we have been having here is White-tailed Deer they have ate our peas and my Swiss Chard the last two nights! Meg is beside herself about her peas. We picked a quart of peas today, maybe our last.

Also for over a week we have been getting 4 Mallard ducks on the pond 3 males and one female. They are welcome to eat all the vegetation in the pond they wish!

New to our yard list a Common Sanddragon. I have lost the list but believe the list is close to 50 species of dragonflies and damselflies. We also added Prince Baskettail last month as one was seen cruising the sky over our pond!

This is a Slender Bluet, Enallagma traviatum that we found at Penny's Bend. Took me a long time to get myself to believe it is a Slender Bluet, normally the last segment(10) should not have that blue. This is the first Durham County record in twenty years, it is tiny and hard to find or no one has reported it. Last year I found over 100 of these at the pond next door and a few at our pond too. On Friday I counted 24 at the local pond.

The photo below shows some details the experts might enjoy.