As usual, I’m way behind on blog posts.  I have too many photos, so I’ll divide them up and – hopefully – do several posts in a row to get caught up.

It has continued to be a (mostly) gorgeous, cool, gradual spring.  I think it’s finally summer now – the leaves have their thick, lush summer look, and some of the birds are working on a second batch of eggs.

A few weeks ago, we got a special camera for talking photos of wildlife.  It has a weather-proof case and a motion sensor, so we can set it up and leave it in places where animals are likely to be.  We tried it at a couple of freshly dug holes, and got nothing at all.  Animals must dig more holes than they need, and abandon the extra ones.  Now we’re trying the camera at some of our paths through the woods.  We know animals use them, because we see scat, and tracks in the snow during the winter.

This is the camera

Here it is, set up along a path

We often see ourselves in the pictures, because these are some of our favorite walking paths.

We get lots of deer pictures.

This fawn followed its mother through several photos.

A woodchuck

And we got a few photos of a skunk.  I’ve smelled them here before, but never seen one.

I like these shiny skunk eyes.

These are a few of the flowers blooming right now.

Downy Paintbrush

Castilleja sessiliflora

Jacob’s Ladder

Polemonium reptans

Marsh Marigolds are blooming in the wetland – or were until a few days ago.

Caltha palustris

Caltha palustris

Plum blossoms

Prunus americana

Red Baneberry

Actaea rubra

Golden Alexander is blooming in all the planted prairies.

Zizia aurea

Western Prairie looks beautiful right now.  There’s lots of Indian Paintbrush blooming (Castilleja coccinea), and even more Hawk’s-beard (Crepis tectorum) – the yellow, dandelion-like flower.  Hawk’s-beard is a non-native weed.  It seems to bloom a lot in the first few years of a planted prairie, and then get crowded out by the prairie plants.

Western Prairie was the last prairie we planted, in the fall of 2007.  It’s one of the two prairies we planted using a seed drill.  The drill plants the seeds in lines, which persist for a few years until the plants start to reseed themselves and expand into larger clumps.

And here’s an Eastern Comma sunning itself in the woods.  It spent the winter as an adult, hidden away from the weather behind some bark or in a brush pile, so by this time it’s looking a little worn.

Polygonia comma