Black snake on the holly

Hopefully, she/he is looking for caterpillars for dinner.

Butterfly Great Spangled Fritillary

I had not seen this butterfly before yesterday. Thankfully, Grant had a readily accessible book on butterflies that helped identify it. Click to enlarge these-nice details on them.

Birds

Here are some recent sighting in the backyard.

Male pileated woodpecker

Turkey vulture

Scarlet tanager in our yard right before the rainstorm last night,

Better late than never

Although it is the end of memorial day weekend I am finally getting around to posting more photos. Some of these are from a few months ago when Spring sprung on the Ridge. If any of you have any photos to share of nature, please do!

Spring has Sprung

This week it looks like the daffodils are out, the redbuds are showing and another tree with white flower buds (not dogwood) are blossoming. Spring is one of the best times on the Ridge with new sounds (owls, spring peeper frogs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SM6leUVorY  , tree frogs, etc.) and new blossom sights every week along with birds returning from migration. With the warm weather has this all started earlier than usual? I noticed plenty of bugs around our evening outdoor light earlier than usual this year.

Barred Owls

Last weekend with the air crisp and great for sleeping we had the windows open and were able to hear two barred owls calling back and forth for about 20 minutes. It had been over a year since we last heard them and it's always exciting when they call out. For some reason it always seems to be between 2 and 4am.  Has anyone else been hearing them?
If you don't know what they sound like it goes like this, "Who cooks? Who cooks for yooouu?"
http://home.centurytel.net/bobowlcalls/recordings2/01%202005-09-20%20p023%20M%2019_4s%2011025%2016b.wav

Beavers in Cacapon today

I watched three beavers swimming in the river today when I came home around 4:30. One after the other, they would submerge and then come back up again. It didn't look like they were in a hurry to get anywhere. I know that "cute" isn't a good term for describing wildlife....but that's what kept me sitting there for quite a while!