Sea buckthorn bushes (Hippophae rhamnoides) create a canopy over the path at Ashbridge’s Bay. ©BCP 2010
I actually took the photo above last week, on one of the hazy humid days that could make you damp just thinking about going outside for a walk. So this photo should have been posted last week. But somehow or other, my posts have gotten out of order. Too busy, I guess. Can you have too much life in your life? Perhaps I should slow down.
At any rate, here is a photo of one of my most favourite spots at Ashbridge’s Bay, a place I call the nursery. Why? Because each spring it’s here in the tangled branches of some gnarly old sea buckthorn bushes that the starling parents leave their nestlings while they go off to hunt for food to bring back to them. The babies — dozens of them — squawk and squeek and generally make all the symphony of sounds the starlings are famous for.
I’ll have to make another trip to the bay to confirm this, but I’m thinking that the European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are having another brood of chicks, too, as we head into late summer. Just checked in Wikipedia and found that starlings can, in fact, raise up to three broods per season. I thought I saw a very young starling at the bay last week.
Right now, both sides of this path are a sight to behold, abloom as they are with chicory (Cichorium intybus) and Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). I’ll see if I can dig out another image that shows the profusion of blooms more clearly than the photo above.
© BCP 2010
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