I saw a little flutter of blue along the trail and was hoping it was one of the early butterflies of the season here on Cape Cod, the Spring Azure. (Click on blog link for other photos.)
It was a Spring Azure and I was in for a treat as it flitted about the trail for quite a quite while we clicked away. You can see how vivid the blue is when the butterfly has its wings extended, and then how so dramatically different it is when its sings are folded.
Have you ever seen a Spring Azure butterfly? So pretty, don’t you think?
There were a couple of kite surfers at Coast Guard Beach the other day, enjoying that brisk wind and somewhat warm temps. The sun was shining brightly and they looked like they were loving it!
The grape jelly is out and the sisal twine is cut and on the ground as we anticipated the arrival of the Baltimore Orioles. And then yesterday, we saw a flash of orange up in the top of the tree and we knew they were back. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
It’s so exciting to watch these magnificent birds come and eat at the feeders and gather twine to weave their intricate nests. We were lucky a couple of years ago as they made their nest high in a tree right in our back yard. Will we be that lucky again this year? It will be so much fun watching them all summer long. Such a treat!
The pretty, little Spring Starflowers are blooming along the sides of the roads on Cape Cod. They are so pretty and delicate with their light purple color and bright yellow center.
”The foliage has an onion-like scent when crushed. The stem grows up to 20 cm (8 in) tall and bears a solitary showy flower in spring (hence the Latin name uniflorum – “single flower”). Each honey-scented, star-shaped flower has six pointed lobes up to 3 centimeters long in shades of very pale to deep purple-blue.”
This is the time of year when all of the Grackles arrive and invade our bird feeders. They come in droves, eat a lot of the bird seed and scare all the other birds away. They are relentless!
We have been using the large and small version on the Squirrel Buster bird feeders. The bird feeders close when a heavier bird lands on them. But the Grackles figured out how to eliminate that problem and ate most of the bird food.
After trying many new adaptations each year and failing, we finally modified our Squirrel-Buster bird feeder hoping this would make it Grackle-proof. It worked!
It is so much fun to watch the Grackles scavenge around on the ground looking for some leftover seed while the smaller birds are eating from the bird feeders. The Grackles don’t even try to get anything from the feeders anymore. So much fun!
Cape Cod daily articles on the wonderful Cape Cod places to hike, experience and photograph. A Cape Cod Outdoor Adventure Series.
