Wood Duck (male)

Botany Highlight: Dawn Redwood

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) male cones

Species list: double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, gadwall, wood duck, northern shoveler, red-tailed hawk, rock pigeon, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker,  blue jay, black-capped chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, white-breasted nuthatch, house wren, American robin, hermit thrush, ruby-crowned kinglet, red-eyed vireo,  house sparrow, common grackle, northern cardinal, house finch, American goldfinch, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow. (29 species)

Pinkweed (Persicaria pensylvanica)

Douglas-fir cone (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Monarch Butterfly on Butterfly Bush

Red-tailed Hawk

Sky-blue Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense)

Sassafrass (Sassafrass albidum)

Miles Hearn

NATURE POETRY

Now the beautiful business of summer is over,
Earth wraps herself in a bright, leaf-patterned shawl.
The hives cement the prodigal juice of the clover
And spendthrift gold is hoarded in bin and stall.

– Jean Starr Untermeyer (1886–1970)