April closes out for many towns in the area as the second wettest April on record (unless the rain today pushes it to the first) and not all the precipitation was rain as the shovels had many opportunities to get a workout this spring. I’m not sure even the ducks like this wet weather but they didn’t seem to notice the rain or snow as they splashed in the water by the pond. But the real question is will all these April showers bring May flowers.
Very Wet April
It is rather depressing to see snowflakes flying in the air in the end of April. I don’t know if April snow showers will bring May flowers since the four wildflowers that have poked their heads up are keeping their blossoms closed up tight. The snow showers probably will freeze the poor little flowers. And I don’t think the bluebirds like the snow anymore than I do and hopefully they are huddling together in their birdhouse to keep warm.
Late April Snow Showers
Yesterday the ice broke up and quickly disappeared by the ice caves on Lake Superior near Cornucopia, Wisconsin. Last month people were still visiting the ice caves, walking on the frozen surface of Lake Superior and two months I had brave the cold weather to visit them too. I am glad I wasn’t on the ice when it broke up as the creaking and cracking was spooky enough when I taking pictures.
Click here to view the ice break from the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. (Click on the Next button to cycle through the ice break up pictures.) The webcam shot is looking out the opposite direction as the image below, so the cliff in the back on the left, is the same cliff on the right in the image below looking towards the webcam.
Frozen World
April showers bring May flowers. Well hopefully this rainy April week will bring some flowers and maybe finally melt the last of the snow. Normally there would be some wildflowers open by now but not this year and only the second type of early spring bulbs have opened so far this year.
The Scilla siberica (Siberian squill or wood squill) is native to south western Russia, the Caucasus, and Turkey, and strangely, despite its name, it is not native to Siberia. It is cultivated for its bluebell-like flowers and it naturalizes rapidly from seed. At a height of less than six inches, it is suitable for planting in grass, and will spread by seed to form large colonies that go dormant by the time grass needs to be mowed. In the Midwestern United States it is becoming invasive in some situations. It is very hardy and cold tolerant, and is left untouched by critters from voles to deer.
Siberian Squill
Many states are celebrating Arbor Day today, the last Friday of April. All 50 states celebrate Arbor Day although the dates may vary in keeping with the local climate. The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska. It was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton, a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan.
Morton felt that Nebraska’s landscape would benefit from the wide-scale planting of trees for wind breaks. When he became a member of Nebraska’s state board of agriculture, he proposed that a special day be set aside dedicated to tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees. More than one million trees were planted on Nebraska’s first Arbor Day.
I’m glad my squirrels forget where they bury all their acorns so they plant new oak trees for me as most of my old oaks are getting hollow and blowing down.
Old Oak Tree
There are no leaves on the trees or corn planted in the field yet since it is the dull time of spring after the snow disappears (or most of it) and before things begin to green up, but with a rainy day on a dull landscape, I needed a more colorful picture. The old rock foundation and the mismatched upper windows caught my eye on this old barn.
Old Stones
The Killdeers have been back for several weeks but hopefully they haven’t laid their eggs yet since a rainy/snowy stretch is coming up. A shorebird, who rarely spends time on a shore, but instead is found in pastures, fields, sandbar, driveways, gravel rooftops and golf courses. Course gravel rooftops are dangerous for the young when the adults lure the babies off the roof and at the cheese factory, we would try putting cushion material down when they started to jump off the roof.
I generally see them in the pastures and watch their broken-wing act to lead me away from their nest, which is often in a dry cow pie, but the broken-wing act doesn’t keep the cows from from stepping on the eggs so they will use a different tactic. The Killdeer will fluff itself up, display its tail over its head and then run at the cow to attempt to make the cattle change its path.
Killdeer get their name from the shrill, wailing kill-deer call they give so often and were also called the Chattering Plover and the Noisy Plover.
Noisy Killdeer
The frog were correct, spring is here or at least the snow has finally melted off the lawn. And it is fitting that the snow left so you can see the ‘earth’ again for Earth Day.
Earth Day began in 1970, with a federal proclamation from U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, when 20 million people across the United States (one in ten) rallied for increased protection of the environment.
Nelson recounted in an essay shortly before he died in July 2005 at 89. “The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air—and they did so with spectacular exuberance.”
Earth Day
According to the frogs, spring has finally arrived as they have been croaking up a storm. It is amazing how a tiny frog an inch long can make a noise that carries so far. I was expecting to find some big frogs making the ruckus down at the pond and it with so many singing, it was hard to find the individual noise makers, especially when I discovered most of them were little critters who double their width when they ‘croak’ and their vocal sac distends outward.
All the noise in the spring is to attract females and it is said that female frogs prefer males that produce sounds of greater intensity and lower frequency, attributes that stand out in a crowd. The rationale for this is thought to be that by demonstrating his prowess, the male shows his fitness to produce superior offspring. I heard a large range of sounds and some very high pitched ones that hurt my ears so hopefully the females will hurry up and pick their mate so the noise level goes down.
Click on the play button to hear the frog choir at the pond!
Noisy Frog
