Mid May Bloom Day

Greenbow this May is about as you would imagine it would be bloom-wise. There are a some surprises in that a few flowers have bloomed a little early. The irises are about finished blooming and alliums are at that star struck stage. 

The Honeysuckles in the garden are continuing their rounds of blooms. They are a great plant to have in the garden during migration. Our first hummingbird made a bee line to them. 

A nice little surprise was a female Common Yellowthroat Warbler. She and her hubby, who I didn't get a picture of, stayed around for a few days before they passed along to their nesting area. 

Others who stopped at the nearby feeding station was this male Rose Breasted Grosbeak

and his partner. 

It seemed that the entire family stopped by on their way North. Jr was here as long as they stayed. How do I know this is a young bird? It still has some of the brown streaking on it's flanks and the black on it's head is not fully transformed. How do I know this is a family unit?  I don't know but that  doesn't stop me from telling myself this fairy tail.

Since it is Mother's Day as I type this I thought I would show you a couple of the Moms in the garden. First we have Mrs Robin on her nest that is nestled in the grape vines. There are a lot of grapes beginning to form.

Then over here in this ceramic nest box we have Mrs House Wren. She is not as trusting as Mrs Robin.

She soon jumped out of her nest to try to lure me away. I didn't dally here even though there is a bench right below the nest box.

Let's go over and have a seat on the patio and if you choose to stay with me I will show you some of the other denizens of the garden. Yes, I am still enjoying my color update on the patio. All the plants around the patio are filling in nice. If you make the photo larger you can see the Gull Wings iris, the orange begonia on top of the chimnea , the honeysuckle in the right background are all blooming. Even the succulent in the middle of the table has a bloom. 

We make blackberry and grape jelly and share with the birds and other friends. 

  We will have plenty of blackberries this year thanks in part to this fly that is a bee mimic.

The Grey Catbirds are back. They love jelly.  I haven't found their nest yet, I am not really looking for it but when Annie went to one area of the garden the Mr dive bombed her. So I  have a feeling if I looked in the area I would find it. 

It is funny that when the Catbird attacked Annie she didn't even know it was a bird that attacked. She thought it was her furry nemesis the grey squirrel that gave her a nip on her back. She looked all around for them and totally ignored the bird in the shrub scolding her. The squirrels and Annie have a love hate relationship. Annie loves to chase them and they hate her for it.

I know that the Red-bellied Woodpeckers have a nest near here too. Both the male and female stop by the seed platform to imbibe of some easy treats. This is a female. She is so agile using her stiff tail as a prop. 

So far the garter snake is keeping up with the snails and slugs. I haven't had much damage to my hostas yet thanks to this fellow.

So instead of leaving you with that vision, for those who abhor snakes I will leave you with another lovely honeysuckle, Scentsations, with my red climbing rose in the background, which is two weeks early blooming.

 I hope everyone enjoyed Mother's day and you were able to hang out in the sun and sniff flowers.

If you didn't give or get any flowers to celebrate or you just want more to look at you can pop over to Carol's at May Dreams Garden. to get your fix of blooms.