What to See This Week

The first snow came early this year with many trees still holding onto their leaves. The Arboretum gets a lot of attention with spring blooms and fall color but it is breathtaking in all seasons and definitely worth a visit after snow throughout the winter.

Whenever it snows, Holly Hill is one of the first places to go as it stays full of life throughout the winter. When taking a walk through the collection you can expect to run into robins, mockingbirds, cedar waxwings, and golden-crowned kinglets all feeding on the holly fruits or picking insects off twigs.

This red-tailed hawk was making rounds around Holly Hill, resulting in alarm calls from several songbirds and a few birds even chasing the hawk. This one was regularly calling, a distinctive sound that is often used in movies. 

Even as the weather gets colder, lichens remain an interesting subject. Lichens are a composite organism, meaning they are a combination of two entirely different organisms. A fungus gives the lichen its shape and structure and algae gives the lichen its color and carries out photosynthesis providing energy to the organism. Pictured here is one of the more distinctive lichens found at The Arboretum: bushy beard lichen. 

The Bird Watching Garden is a busy place in the snow! Pictured here are a couple mourning doves. Mourning doves can be seen in the garden year-round. Their feathers are fluffed, trapping air to work like insulation, a method birds use to keep themselves warm in cold weather.

A pair of Carolina wrens were hopping around the Bird Watching Garden this morning. Carolina wrens mate for life and stay with their mate throughout the winter. Although most birds are done singing until spring, Carolina wrens are known for singing all year, even in middle of winter.

Tufted titmice are around all year but are a lot more regularly seen in the Bird Watching Garden throughout the winter. During the breeding season, tufted titmice rely on insects as their main food source and the main food source for their young. Just like many other birds, their diet shifts in the winter to seeds and other foods available this time of year.

Our state bird is a very photogenic bird, especially this time of year when their bright red coloration contrasts the more muted colors in the environment. Cardinals are sexually dimorphic meaning that males and females have a different appearance and pictured here is the more brightly colored male.