Jean Wirth

@jwirth.bsky.social

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Slowly removing lawn, replacing with native plants. My one small step for wildlife, climate, anxiety. Reading, learning to play the ukelele, front porch birding and nature observing. Trying to stay informed but not stressed out.

A Carolina wren is taking a dirt bath in a saucer filled with potting mix. The saucer is on a table on the porch and the porch railing and garden, with Black-eyed Susans and beebalm blooming, are in the background. The photo is taken through a window.
My native plant garden, which is lush and green from all the July rain. Black-eyed Susans are blooming and some beebalm that didn’t bloom when all the others bloomed.
A bright blue male bluebird perched on a feeder crook and a blue painted metal bluebird on the post next to it.
The path through our front garden is disappearing behind the coneflowers, beebalm, and obedient plants.
Cut flowers from my garden in a green vase on a marble table with a tiled backsplash.
A fritillary butterfly on a pink coneflower, in a bed of coneflowers.
An Eastern Yellow Swallowtail butterfly enjoying the beebalm.
A portion of my front yard garden, with pink coneflowers in the foreground and pink monarda and.lavender delphiniums in the background. Many other perennials are waiting for their time to bloom.
The purple flowers of common selfheal in an unmowed area of lawn.
A male pileated woodpecker is standing on a wooden fence rail. There is also wire fencing to keep dogs on their own side of the fence.
Fleabane, that has small flowers with white petals and a yellow center, grows lushly along a wood fence.
Rain water is gushing over the top of a red rain barrel.
Many types of native perennials are growing cheek by jowl. Green green everywhere just now, with just a few blossoms here and there. But there are buds throughout.
A black crowned night heron standing on a submerged log, peering into the brackish water of a lake. Green vegetation and small trees line the bank.
A bright yellow and black American Goldfinch standing on a red Hummingbird feeder.
Flowers in the native plant garden. Purple Baptisia, Golden Alexander in middle ground, and Prairie Ninebark in background.
A chart from Project Feeder Watch shows that we have counted birds for 18 years, 402 counts, with 53 different species
Spring in the front yard pollinator garden. Lots of different perennials in different stages of green growth. A flowering red honeysuckle plant trailing along the porch railing.
Red honeysuckle with lots of blossom clusters along a porch railing.
A White-Breasted Nuthatch on a dying branch of an oak tree.
On a sunny day earlier this week, a Common Grackle was standing on a wood railing with its wing facing straight down and resting on the railing.
A male Red Bellied Woodpecker, with its bright red cap catching the early evening sun. It’s on a large limb of an oak tree that is showing some swelling nubs of spring growth.
An Eastern Bluebird perched on the crook that holds the bird feeders. It’s snowing.
A chipmunk is standing upright on a block wall, with snow beyond it.
A red shouldered hawk is standing in a saucer of water with snow all around.
My husband shoveling snow from around the fire hydrant across the street.
A black capped chickadee is perched on the edge of a saucer of water.
A red-breasted nuthatch and house sparrow enjoying Christmas morning peanuts at the feeder.
A male and female bluebird are perched together on the edge of a birdbath. They are looking at us looking at them through the window.
A bright red male cardinal is perched on the crook of a bird feeder pole. Snow covered shrubs are in the background.
After the overnight snow, monarda seed heads are wearing white caps.
A green lacewing with its long antenna, red eyes, and delicate clear wings showing the green body below.
An Eastern yellow swallowtail butterfly on the magenta flowers of an aster.
A white moth, wings open, with a subtle striped appearance on a brown oak leaf in the grass.
A female Ruby throated hummingbird perched on the crook that holds the hummingbird feeder.
The flower clusters of a wingstem plant, some in tight green spikes and others fully open with bright yellow petals.
A female Ruby throated hummingbird perched on a honeysuckle branch that’s growing along the porch railing, looking out at the morning drizzle.
Bumblebee with bulging pollen sacs on the feathery blue mist flower.
Bumblebees on the tightly closed pink flowers of a turtlehead plant. Black-eyed Susans are in the background.
A green chrysalis suspended from a leaf that is spotted with rust (I think) and dying, as is the entire showy goldenrod plant.
An American goldfinch standing on the top of a red hummingbird feeder, getting ready to take a sip of water from the reservoir on top of the feeder.
A patch of flowers along a backyard fence. White fleabane, mostly gone for the season, bright yellow black-eyed Susan, a spike of great blue lobelia, and pink turtlehead.
There are lots of black-eyed Susans in the garden, with their long-lasting bright yellow flowers. In the foreground are the dark pink turtlehead flowers. I think the cultivar is “Hot Lips.”
A chunky monarch caterpillar, yellow and black stripes, eating its way through an orange milkweed plant. Mostly narrow green leaves with one cluster of orange buds.
A large bumblebee and an Eastern yellow swallowtail butterfly are getting nectar from the pink flowers of an obedient plant.
A black grass-carrying wasp is bringing dead grass to a bee hotel to build a nest.
A bright yellow and black American goldfinch is looking for the best purple coneflower seed head. Golden yellow black-eyed Susans are blurred in the background.
A black swallowtail butterfly with its white and orange dots along the edges of its wing and a blue dusting among the dots. Its black body is dotted with white. It’s getting nectar from the clustered pink flowers of an obedient plant. Green foliage throughout.
The seed heads of parsley and purple coneflowers in the early morning sun.
Our wild native plant garden with great blue lobelia, the yellow of black-eyed Susans, the pink of obedient plants, fading coneflowers with good seed heads, and lots of foliage from many more plants.
A Common Grackle standing on wood railing with the green foliage of a tree behind it.
A monarch butterfly on a black-eyed Susan in the foreground with lots of other black-eyed Susans fuzzily out of focus in the background. A bright yellow and orange scene.
A $10 bill found on our morning litter pickup walk.
A monarch butterfly on a pink flower of an obedient plant in a garden with many other budding and blooming obedient plants.
Marshmallow plants, some with large white flowers and some with large pink flowers, edging a lake and reflecting in the water. Large oak trees are in the background.
A yellow and black swallowtail butterfly on a swamp milkweed plant that has a tiny blossom peaking out from behind the butterfly. Milkweed pods have formed and will spread seed puffs later this summer.
Our garden with yellow flowers, both coneflowers and black-eyed Susans, with a few purple coneflowers and bee balm. Lots of green foliage.
A bumblebee on a beebalm blossom, one blossom among many. Green foliage behind.
Amidst the foliage, a very bright yellow and black male American goldfinch is ready to pull some seeds from a beebalm seedhead.