snakes and 'dragons

In the last week or so I have seen flocks of Tufted Titmice mobbing what seemed to be nothing at all. One suggestion was that they were mobbing an unseen snake but this was challenged on the theory that most snakes don't climb. However Suzanne Ruggles writes "I've come face to face with a garden snake hanging out about 3' up into a shrub. I have also unwittingly poured bird seed on top of a snake that was in the feeder about 8' above ground level."

I'm intrigued by the appearance of a flower I haven't seen before in an area along one of the right-of-ways that give access to our place. There are sometimes escaped flowers here or perhaps flowers that result from seeds scattered by a neighbor. This one has the aspect of a wildflower rather than something cultivated from an alien species. It looks something like a snapdragon but has the square stem and opposite leaves of a mint. The leaves are narrow and toothed. The tubular flowers, colored somewhere between pink and violet, have a 3-lobed lip; they appear on a spike above the leaves and they are numerous (although the whole plant is grows only a foot or two). I think it is a flower with the wonderful name of False Dragonhead, Physotegia virginiana. Perhaps this is a cultivated variety as the lip does not appear to be spotted, a feature that is mentioned in at least one of the guides. The bees are very fond of it as there are lots of flowers each one with a tube just large enough for a bee to fit nearly inside as they go about their (and the flower's) business.

There have been a few raptors coming through. A small accipiter (I first thought it was a Kestrel or a Merlin) was undoubtedly a Sharp-shinned Hawk. A Red-tailed Hawk came soaring over the creek, spiraling up and up on a thermal. There are still several Osprey around with a mixture of the local birds and migrants coming through. One Osprey landed with a fish on a dead stub at the far end of Pine Neck where it juts out into the bay, a favorite perch for the local birds. Suddenly a Great Blue Heron dove it and actually drove the Osprey off, taking over the perch. The Osprey, still carrying its fish, tried several times to dislodge the heron without success and finally had to settle for a less lofty perch to finish its meal.

Eric Salzman