Seen This Week: Beauty, Bugs and Urban Deer

Bumblebee at obedient plant, 23 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John) 27 June 2026 This week I was in Blair and Allegheny Counties where I found late June flowers, busy insects and urban deer. Beauty Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), at top, attracts many pollinators. It’s called obedient plant because if you move an individual flower to the side it stays in place. Enchanter’s nightshade (Circaea sp.) started blooming at the summer solstice in Schenley Park. Enchanter’s nightshade, Schenley, 26 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John) American germander (Teucrium canadense) is blooming at the Herrs Island back channel. American germander, near Herr’s Island, 24 June 2026 (photo by Kate St. John) On 21 June we had a beautiful morning birding the Lower Trail at Mt. Etna Station in Blair County. Before the day heated up, mist rose from the damp wooden railing on the pedestrian bridge over Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River. Mist rises from a damp railing on the Lower Trail at Mt. Etna,…