Buds, Bugs, and Birds

The many interrelationships that connect flora and fauna at Halibut Point begin with the fundamental relationship between the sun and the earth revolving around it, on a tilted axis. From that geometry we arrive at the seasonal awakening of spring. 

In these lengthening days the sun's warmth intersects with last year's solar energy stored in dormant plant cells and insect eggs. Buds and bugs emerge from dormancy together. They are both at succulent stages, intent on benefiting from the organic tissues manufactured by the plant through photosynthesis. This food chain sets the stage for sustaining migratory birds on their way to northern breeding grounds. The timing of all these factors is purposeful, intricate, critical. Its process is as beautiful to our understanding as the individual living elements are to our senses.

The photographs below show intersections of buds, bugs, and birds early in the spring renaissance. The main birding events should be imminent but only briefly observable as tree canopies close in, and the ostentatious activities of courtship realign to prudent secrecies of nesting. Of course many of the eye-catching species will just be  passing through, or so we hope, in eager anticipation that they will once again survive the hazards and demands of migration.

Palm Warbler foraging high in a Red Maple canopy

March Fly on a Lowbush Blueberry flower

White-eyed Vireo hunting insects in a thicket

Lasioglossum bee nectaring on a Woodland Strawberry flower

Baltimore Oriole on the alert for tidbits in the flower tassels of a Black Oak tree