Community lens

The world through your eyes

Calling amateur photographers! Have you taken a great picture that you’d like to share with the world? One with action, great lighting and/or interesting subjects? E-mail it to communitynews@ajc.com. Please no selfies, for-profit promotional pics, group shots or anything you wouldn’t want your grandma to see. Connie Beckham of Milton sent this photo of an Eastern Phoebe in June. “[It] has been a resident of our yard since last fall,” she wrote. “She is rather demanding when it comes to her food, preferring meal worms and choice of feeder. We have delighted in watching her and mate bring two young ones close to our back door.” According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the bird’s raspy “phoebe” call is a frequent sound around yards and farms in spring and summer. These brown-and-white songbirds sit upright and wag their tails from prominent, low perches. They typically place their mud-and-grass nests in protected nooks on bridges, barns and houses, which adds to the species’ familiarity to humans. Hardy birds, Eastern Phoebes winter farther north than most other flycatchers and are one of the earliest returning migrants in spring. Debra Edwards of Cumming sent a photo of these balloon flowers in her back yard. The balloon flower (platycodon grandiflorus), also known as Chinese bellflower, has been a “fan favorite” for more than 50 years, yet it’s still not found in many gardens, according to garden.org. This stalwart member of the campanula family is native to China. Its dominant flower color is a dazzling blue, with white and pink forms to complete the palette. Dependably perennial in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 through 8, balloon flower tolerates both extreme cold and scorching summer heat. It thrives in full sun but also adapts well to partial shade, especially in zones 7 and 8. The plant’s common name makes perfect sense. The flower buds are hollow balloons, which gradually inflate and color up. Finally the buds burst open into star-shaped flowers 2- to 3-inches across.