Even if you used gasoline I don’t think there is much danger of a forest fire with the woods being as wet as they are. Some of the wildflowers are trying to get up the courage to get out their blooms but that snow today (5/4) would discourage any flower I know of.
A small patch of trout lilies are growing near the house. They have been in approximately the same position all week just waiting for a peek of sunshine.
The daphne bushes are showing their pretty pink blooms, but they are about two weeks later than normal.
I’ve heard the smelt were running—and then not running—as they depend on the water temperature to spawn.
I haven’t talked to the BTI treatment person to see how the blackflies are developing.
They will be hatching out of every little wet run if eggs got laid there last spring.
I saw where the wood frogs had laid eggs in my little pond out back. Most of the eggs had white spots on them, which normally means they were hit with a frost after being laid.
I heard the frogs croaking again the other night so they may lay some more eggs.
The peepers were putting out quite a chorus in back of the Inlet Golf Course the other night, and I’m sure they are going to get louder.
One time I saw some of the ponds there just covered with wood frogs in action. If a great blue heron was there he would have had a big snack.
One of the last bike trips we took in Florida was around the Indigo Trail in Ding Darling.
The main road had been repaved over last summer and it was very smooth biking compared to what it was last spring.
Coming back down the Indigo Trail we saw a small alligator sunning himself.
There is a new trail going from the Indigo Trail to the local school and an observation platform has been built on it.
Right from the platform you could look into the nest of a little blue heron with four babies in it.
Both adults came in and fed the chicks while we were watching them.
A father and son from England were there also. The son was taking pictures with his camera that had a small lens, and I offered him the use of my zoom lens.
He got some close-up shots with it, and then a black and white warbler came by; he got some shots of that also.
His dad said that he knew what his son would be asking to get for Christmas this year. I told him his son would have to mow a lot of lawns to pay for his own lens. He said there weren’t many lawns in London.
When we biked back home that day we stopped at Bailey’s Store for lunch where there was a pair of gray kingbirds chasing bugs from the trees and power lines.
A coopers hawk came flying in and snatched a baby bird from a grackle’s nest in one of the trees.
This got the whole bird community upset, but the hawk made off with it prey.
We pedaled back home the long way to Gulfside Beach and I photographed several brown pelicans diving for fish.
There were several common terns also diving for minnows.
I’ve been looking for a little color on the gray trees but I haven’t seen much yet.
The lilacs are pushing out some buds so it looks like they will be the first things to have leaves this spring.
The mice and shrews did a job on the bark and cambium layer of many little trees, which isn’t good as it will kill them.
Many small beech trees have been chewed off just under the leaf litter and are no longer attached to their roots.
You can pick these little trees right out of the ground.
They also got on a few of my ornamental shrubs which will have to come back from the roots.
This is why you see many orchard growers put wire or wrap around the first foot or two of their trees to protect them from these rodents.
Back to Crown Point for the 39th consecutive year of bird banding, but that’s another story…
See ya.