The fruit is starting to come in…

Yesterday afternoon, I notice a robin picking at something on the sidewalk just south of the pond, so I took out my binoculars to watch as he broke off a couple of chunks and immediately swallowed them. The thing looked like a little pinecone, and I thought to myself “Don’t eat that! That’s no good for you!” and then, to my horror, he swallowed the rest of it whole.

Well, it turns out that was no pinecone, of course. Instead, it was a mulberry, and I should have gotten my camera out to get some really cool pictures instead of standing there like a knucklehead second-guessing one of the most obviously successful species in the park!

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From left/top to right/bottom, we’ve got red mulberries (Morus rubra), white mulberries (Morus alba), and, at the north end of the pond, raspberries “the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus“, which are really starting to look delicious, eh?

Speaking of the pond, two of our old friends, whom we haven’t seen in a while, were there this morning. From left/top to right/bottom, is a female wood duck and the muskrat, who I had just seen scamper across the parkway. Again, too late with the camera.

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There’s also a new dragonfly at the pond, this handsome blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis), who was quite willing to pose, first on one twig and then another, until I could get just the right shot. Now that’s my kind of critter!

Meanwhile, another fruit is still just getting started: the American black elderberry, Canada elderberry, or just common elderberry when we’re playing nice (Sambucus canadensis).

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Finally, I’ll leave you with a bunny who appears to have had quite a hankerin’ for a certain tasty leaf.

That’s a lot of scrolling, eh?