Week 23 was a short week for me as I went out of town for several days. That said, there were few updates in the landscape to report. That's not to say that everything was unchanged. Nature is in a state of flux, so sometimes you just need to look a bit more closely to spot the changes.
I did see a couple of procrastinating migratory bird species this week; a Northern Waterthrush and a Willow Flycatcher, the latter has a small population which breeds along the coast.
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Northern Waterthrush
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Willow Flycatcher
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Our only successful breeding pair of resident Red-tailed Hawks have a single, healthy nestling that, as of this writing, is moments away from leaving the nest. The Downy Woodpeckers in the cemetery have been busy feeding their young, with a family next to the Steinway mausoleum getting ready to fledge.
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Nestling Red-tailed Hawk
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Nestling Downy Woodpecker
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The Linden trees are back for a second round of flowering. This time the small, yellow flowers of the Little-leaf Lindens are filling the air with an incredible, honey-like fragrance. In addition, the cemetery's Common Persimmons are now sporting inconspicuous, pale yellow blooms.
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Little-leaf Linden
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Common Persimmon
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Within the sea of green grasses along the Hill of Graves are occasional tall stems of flowering Orchardgrass standing above the other meadow species.
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Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata)
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Finally, one of the fruiting plants I noticed last week is an introduced invasive vine: Bittersweet Nightshade. A member of the same family as our tomatoes, this fruit is highly toxic to humans. It is, however, an important fall and winter food source for birds.
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Bittersweet Nightshade
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