Sublime Sunday with Successions of Growth in the Forest, Winged Friends and the Macro World of Insects

With the amount of moisture we've been getting the under story in the forest is lush and green.

Sunlight Highlighting the Prominent Plant on the Forest Floor the Horsetail

In a low area the water levels have remained up, not drying up after the Spring melt which has left the tree roots sodden. When the winds came up many of them have toppled over opening up the woodland to more sunlight and successions of growth.

In earlier posts I had shared photos of the marsh marigold in bloom in the wet areas, now this area is overgrown with the light fronds of the horsetails.

Horsetail With Their Flower Head Growing Above the Marsh Marigold Leaves

Sunlight Highlights the Delicate Fronds of the Horsetail Plants

Sunlight Breaking Through the Woods Highlights the Horsetails

On the other side of the lane it is has become very wet too with big leave of the coltsfoot coming up among the horsetails. I like having them handy for they make good cough medicine!

Coltsfoot Leaves Coming Up Among the Horsetail

At the head of our lane we have a couple of big spruce trees and some lilac bushes which, with some warmer days of Summer, the blossoms are fully open and have become teaming with life!

Lilacs Growing At the Base of the Towering Spruce Tree at the Head of Our Lane

Lilac Bush in Full Bloom

A Couple of Swallowtail Butterflies Visit the Lilac Blooms

Close Up Swallowtail Butterfly on Lilac Bloom

Close Up Side View Swallowtail Butterfly on Lilac

There was a huge bumblebee flying around the lilacs. It was so big at first I thought it was the hummingbird moth but when it landed on a flower closer to me I saw it was the Rusty Patch Bumble Bee enjoying the nectar of the lilacs!

Close Up Bumblebee Flying to the Lilac blossoms

Close Up Rusty Patch Bumblebee on Lilac Bloom

Higher up on the lilac a dragonfly landed on a bloom. I'm always so happy to see the dragonflies because they are beautiful and they eat mosquitoes! We are getting swarms of mosquitoes with all the moisture and the dragonfly balances out the numbers. Here's hoping we get some more sunshine to bring on another hatch of dragonflies!

Close Up Dragonfly on Lilac Bloom

Down in the grasses there was a beautiful golden dragonfly which let me get quite close for a photo.

Close Up Side View Golden Dragonfly

Close Up Golden Dragonfly

One of the wildflowers that is coming into bloom is the woodland wild rose which the insects seem to love. I saw numerous little flies gathering the sweet nectar in freshly open roses and I also caught a bumblebee tucked inside the newly opened rose. There is nothing so divine as the smell of the wild roses but I would wait until that bumblebee leaves before getting to close!

Close Up Bumblebee in Newly Open Wild Rose

Numerous Little Flies Attracted to the Freshly Open Wild Woodland Rose

I had a couple other butterflies visit our yard -

Close Up Mourning Cloak Butterfly Sunning Itself on the Rocks

Close Up Silvery Blue Butterfly on the Pea Vine

With a rain the night before there were still some raindrops on the leaves of some ground plants and I found them on a spider web too, along with the spider!

Close Up Spider on It's Web Full of Raindrops

Another spider showed up on the harebell blossom. It was a white spider.

White Spider on Blue Harebell Flower

One of the birds I love to see returning is the hummingbirds. I had hear a few of them but hadn't seen too many around. Sadly I found one in our garage - it must have knocked itself out for it lay lifeless on the floor. I took a few photos of it's beautiful translucent colors with the red on the throat and shimmery green on it's back then I laid it in a special spot returning it to the earth.

Sunshine Brightens Up the Ruby Throat of the Hummingbird

Sunlight Brings Out the Shimmery Green of the Hummingbird

By our neighbor's field the barn swallows were very much alive and must have been protecting their nest for they were swooping down at me when I came near.

Close Up Barn Swallow Flying Over the Strawbale

Sunlight Shows the Dark Blue on the Barn Swallow Back as it is Flying

Barn Swallow Starting to Swoop Down on Me

In that neighbor's field the horses were grazing contentedly.

Black Mare and Her Off Spring Graze Contented in the Green Grasses

Further up the road we see the succession of growth with the downed white spruce and numerous young spruce growing well to replace it.

Downed Spruce Tree Being Replaced by Young Spruce Trees

Wild Woodland Roses Growing Along Young Spruce

The fresh growth on the tamarack tree was highlighted by the sunshine. The tamarack is one of the few coniferous trees that looses it's needles in the winter being replaced with soft fresh needles in Spring.

Sunlight Highlights the Soft Green New Needles of the Tamarack Tree

Back home Bruno happily runs down the lane after another good day exploring the wonders of nature!

This is my Amazing Nature Contest June #5 entry. See details here

My feathered friends are for the #FeatheredFriends community hosted by @melinda010100

The photos were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX60 HS.

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