Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is the northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, pictured in photo #2.

The northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, is one of the most familiar birds of the Eastern Shore. Unlike many songbirds, cardinals do not migrate, remaining year-round residents. The males’ brilliant red plumage and black facial mask make them instantly recognizable, especially in Winter, while females display warm brown plumage with red accents. Both sexes share a prominent crest and a stout, cone-shaped bill, perfectly suited for cracking seeds.

Cardinals are frequent visitors to backyards, woodland edges, and shrubby habitats. Ground feeders, they find food while hopping on the ground or through shrubs. Seeds make up 90% of their diet, though they will also eat insects such as grasshoppers and beetles. Their clear, whistled songs, sung by both males and females, can be heard throughout the year.

Highly adaptable and closely associated with people, northern cardinals have expanded their range northward over the past century, aided by bird feeders and ornamental plantings. As seed dispersers and insect predators, they play an important ecological role, while their vivid color and bold presence continue to make them a symbol of resilience and beauty in every season.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

Cardinal photograph by Larisa Prezioso.

Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess who is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is winterberry, Ilex verticillata, pictured in photo #2.

Winterberry, Ilex verticillata, is best known for the bright red fruits that cling to its bare branches through Fall and Winter. Despite the name, these colorful structures aren’t berries at all: they’re drupes, the same type of fruit that includes cherries, peaches, olives, and plums. Each drupe consists of a fleshy outer layer surrounding a hard, stone-like “nutlet” that contains one or two smooth seeds.

After hard frosts, the outer flesh becomes especially sugary, making winterberry drupes a high-energy food source for birds and wildlife when little else is available. While highly valuable to animals, the fruits are poisonous to humans. The tough seed coat protects the seeds from damage and digestion, allowing them to pass through birds intact and be deposited elsewhere, helping the plant spread naturally.

By holding onto its fruit long after leaves have dropped, winterberry plays a critical role in Winter ecosystems. Its glowing drupes provide both nourishment and visual interest at a time of year when food — and color — are otherwise scarce, making it one of the most important native shrubs for cold-season wildlife support.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

Bird photograph by Larisa Prezioso.

Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is the green heron, Butorides virescens, pictured in photo #2.

The green heron, Butorides virescens, is a small, stocky heron found throughout the eastern United States and along the West Coast. It breeds widely across Maryland, often perching hunched on low branches above wetlands. Up close, its greenish back, chestnut-striped neck, and yellow legs give it a striking look, though in flight its slow wingbeats and tailless, crowlike silhouette make it easy to overlook. Its sharp “skeow!”” call often announces it before you ever see it.

Green herons are famous for their intelligence, as well as for being one of the few bird species known to use tools. They drop feathers, insects, or even discarded bread into the water to lure fish within striking distance of their dagger-like bill. One determined bird was documented dropping its bait more than two dozen times until a fish finally took it. Their diet is diverse: fish, crustaceans, spiders, snails, amphibians, reptiles, and even rodents, and they will dive headfirst into deeper water when necessary. Green herons can be spotted at the Arboretum wetland from time to time.

During breeding season, pairs nest along both freshwater and coastal habitats, sometimes surprisingly far — up to half a mile — from water. They raise three to five chicks, which can climb trees at just a week or two old using their wings and beaks. Although still considered common, green heron populations have declined by more than 50% since the 1960s, reminding us how much these clever wetland hunters rely on healthy aquatic ecosystems.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is the common persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, pictured in photo #2.

The common persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, is a slow-growing native tree found across the central and eastern United States, from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas. In Fall, its walnut-sized orange fruits begin to appear—often overlooked on the small, bare-branched trees as showier foliage steals the spotlight. Unripe persimmons are famously astringent, but once softened by frost or season, the ripe fruit becomes a sweet, custard-like treat.

Persimmon thrives in full sun to partial shade and grows best in moist, well-drained sandy soils, especially in bottomlands, though it tolerates heat, drought, poor soils, and wind. Trees are dioecious, requiring both male and female plants for fruit production, and they take several years to mature; the best yields come from trees 25–50 years old. One of the tree’s most distinctive features is its thick, dark gray “alligator bark,” divided into blocky plates, paired with fall foliage that ranges from yellow to brilliant red.

Beyond its beauty, persimmon is valuable to both people and wildlife. Its fruit feeds a variety of animals in Winter, and the tree serves as a host plant for several moth species, including the luna moth. Its hard wood has famously been used for golf club heads and billiard cues, and the fruit pulp appears in cakes, breads, and ice creams. Even its dried leaves can be brewed into tea. Folklore adds one more charm: what you see when splitting a seed is said to predict winter weather—spoons for snow, knives for bitter cold, and forks for a mild season.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is the carpel of a tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, pictured in photo #2.

One of the most iconic hardwoods of eastern North America, the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, is known for its tall, straight trunk and narrow crown—traits that make it instantly recognizable in the forest. In Summer droughts, these trees often act as “drought indicators,” shedding yellowing interior leaves as a survival strategy when soil moisture drops.

Its Spring flowers, though often hidden high in the canopy, are among the most striking of any native tree: yellow-green with an orange band at the base of each petal and shaped like miniature tulips. Many people first notice them only when the petals fall to the ground. By late Summer and Fall, the flowers give way to upright, cone-shaped clusters of dry, woody carpels—structures that resemble carved wooden flowers. These cone-like fruits persist into Winter before gradually releasing their winged seeds to the wind.

A single mature tulip poplar can produce tens of thousands of viable seeds, and seedfalls of over a million per hectare are not uncommon. Yet despite this abundance, Liriodendron seeds require a lengthy process to germinate, including prolonged cold stratification followed by warm, moist conditions. Long-lived, stately, and ecologically important, the tulip tree remains one of the defining trees of eastern forests.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is inkberry holly, Ilex glabra, pictured in photo #2.

A hardy evergreen native to the eastern and southeastern United States, inkberry holly, Ilex glabra, is a familiar shrub across the Atlantic Coastal Plain. It thrives in a range of habitats but is most at home in damp or wet soils, where its glossy, narrow leaves provide reliable winter interest. Spreading naturally by stolons, inkberry often forms tidy colonies that lend themselves well to massing, hedges, windbreaks, and even rain gardens.

Its nectar-rich flowers support a wide array of pollinators—including specialist bees—and the shrub serves as a larval host for Henry’s elfin butterfly. Like other hollies, its berries are an important food resource for wildlife, though gardeners should remember that inkberry is dioecious, with separate male and female plants required for berry production.

Low-maintenance, versatile, and excellent for erosion control along streams and pond edges, inkberry holly has long been valued both ecologically and culturally. Its nectar is the source of the highly regarded “gallberry honey,” prized for its mild flavor and clarity.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.

Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo #1?

The answer to last week’s mystery is the river birch, Betula nigra, pictured in photo #2.

Found across the eastern and central United States, the river birch, Betula nigra, is the southernmost of all native birches, and the only one that naturally grows at low elevations. Its shimmering, peeling bark is one of its most recognizable features. This exfoliation is a natural process that helps the tree shed pests, disease organisms, and other hitchhikers like lichens, mosses, and fungi.

More heat-tolerant and disease-resistant than any other birch, the river birch thrives along streambanks, floodplains, and other moist sites where it helps stabilize soil and reduce erosion. In exceptionally dry conditions, river birch may drop some of its leaves as a water-saving strategy. In cultivation, it can be trained as a single trunk or a multi-trunked specimen—both forms showing off that distinctive bark.

The river birch is also notable for what it doesn’t suffer from: it’s the only North American birch naturally resistant to the destructive bronze birch borer. However, it is a “bleeder,” and pruning or accidental wounds cause sap to flow freely, attracting insects, some of which become stuck in the sticky drips. Late Spring flowering rounds out the appeal of this adaptable, resilient native tree.

Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.