Saturday, August 14, 2010

What's Happened to the Great Meadow?

Actually, nothing awful.  They just mowed large portions of it.  I guess that they have to, or it wouldn't be a meadow very long.


Parts of it haven't been mowed.  I don't know whether they just didn't get to the whole thing, or whether they are letting some grow up.

But, there was still a lot to see.  The apples are beginning to show a little bit of color.  Looks like the deer have been jumping the gun a bit.  They have those bottom branches pretty well stripped.

There were Clouded Sulphur butterflies everywhere.  They seemed to be especially fond of the Butterfly Weed that was still blooming.

And, I even found a blue butterfly.  I think it's a Silvery Blue, since they are common in this area.  But, the picture isn't really good enough to make definite identification.

Things are going to seed.  The Bull Thistle, that just a couple of weeks ago was beginning to bloom, is now brown, and releasing puffs of silky seed parachutes.  I saw a Goldfinch feeding on them, but he darted away as soon as he saw me.  I guess he's not as bold as the ones at my feeder, who will let me get pretty close before they fly away.

And, the Everlasting Pea is going to seed.  You can certainly see, from the pods and the seed, that they are related to our garden peas.  See the little caterpillar on one of the seeds in the third picture?  I didn't until I downloaded the picture.  Good thing, or I probably would have been sufficiently icked out that I would have dropped the whole thing.

There were these little Puffballs all along the trail.  I wish I was mushroom savy.  I would have picked them, since they look so lovely.

And, in the sky, the Turkey Buzzards were soaring.



But, the best thing to see on the Meadow, again, were the many swallows, darting and swerving after insects.  This time, I remembered that I had a video feature on my camera, and took a short one.  Enjoy.

5 comments:

Sharon said...

Good Morning, Louise!
The meadow still has lots to offer! The birds are really busy! Great post!

IsobelleGoLightly said...

Still yummy things to eat there in the Great Meadow!

Terry said...

It's looking a lot like late summer.

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Good Morning Louise! When they mow the field next to us, I feel the same you do about the meadow--It's like they've taken something away from us, isn't it? But that feel of summer ending is certainly in the air and at least it's a tiny bit cooler!

THANKS for sharing your memories of "THOSE WEGMAN BOYS!" I had no idea that you had such a connection to its history--How cool is that??!! But I really did enjoy your comment because I always love stories behind the stories! Did I mention that I also love Wegmans? :-)

Tammy said...

Perhaps in a rare stroke of environmental management, they didn't mow the whole thing at once so there would still be attractants for the insects, wildlife etc. Although I agree, if they didn't mow it it wouldn't take it long to lose it's meadow status. Lovely pictures as always. I enjoyed 'the walk' with you!
Tammy