After only seeing some leaves poking out of the ground for the last few days, the second wildflower of the season finally opened up. Although the bloodroot blossom closes back up at night or very cloudy days. When the root of the plant is cut, a reddish sap oozes out which leads to the plant’s common name of bloodroot.
Second Wildflower
I guess it is officially spring now as the first mosquito got me this afternoon and the first bite from that tiny insect feels more like a hummingbird. But so far the hummingbirds, orioles, wrens and grosbeaks haven’t wandered quite this far north yet although hopefully I will see more of the returning birds soon.
Hovering Hummingbird
The hepatica blossoms finally lifted up when the sun finally came out this afternoon, but they are still the only wildflowers that I have found so far this spring. I did find one leaf of the yellow trout lily, but blossoms only appear when there are two basal leaves which may take seven years before it blooms. A colony of the yellow trout lily may only have .5% plants that will bloom. so I don’t see a lot of these yellow blossoms.
Yellow Trout Lily
This morning I had a pair of Blue-winged Teal ducks visit my pond. They are among the latest ducks to arrive in the spring and one of the first to leave in fall. They build their nests on the ground but so far the Blue-winged Teal only seem to visit my pond in the spring but don’t hang around to nest.
Visiting Blue-winged Teals
There was very few wildflowers to pick to put in a May Day basket this year as the Bloodroots leaves are just poking out but there is no hint of the Spring Beauties this spring yet.
Lost Spring Beauties
A little over a hundred miles to the south of my place, my sister spotted the first grosbeak back for the season. I haven’t seen one yet but the Yellow-rumped Warblers as been around for about a week, although they have been at suet feeder a lot since the cold, wet spring hasn’t provided a lot of insects for their snacks. The Yellow-rumped Warbler have two distinct subspecies – the “Myrtle” Warbler of the eastern U.S. with a white throat and “Audubon’s” Warbler of the mountainous West with a yellow throat.
Yellow-rumped “Myrtle” Warbler
The snow glories are finally making their appearance, a month later than normal. Hopefully with the April rain showers, more May flowers will make an appearance too.
Slow Snow Glories
The cold and wet spring has the chipmunk hiding more and not adventuring out except during the few hours of sunshine. And since it has been so cold, I don’t have any plants on the porch for them to dig up and throw the dirt around.
Chilly Chipmunk
For a few brief minutes, the sky was colorful this morning and I wonder what the ducks thought when their water turned pink.
April Pink Sunrise
The one 60 degree day on Saturday helped to nudge spring a little bit as I noticed a warbler back today as well as the grass starting to green up some after the rain. At noon there was some buds of the Snow Glories and by this evening, one blossom had opened. The first wildflower buds of the Hepatica are ready to open but look a bit weary like they were frozen. It was in the 20s last night and will be again tonight so the flowers probably wished they waited another week before emerging.
Frozen Flower
