Another sunny day brought several more returning birds to the area including hummingbirds and orioles. And I wasn’t ready for them so the oriole let me know his feeders weren’t hung up yet. But the male oriole didn’t leave and he found the feeder after a while so maybe he forgave my tardiness.
Baltimore Oriole Back
Another of the spring bird arrived today, as the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks males have been spotted in the trees and feeders. And at least the males do help the females in the nest building and he takes a turn incubating the eggs for a few hours during the day, although the female has the remaining incubation time.
Returning Rose-breasted Grosbeak
While I might not have found any Spring Beauties blooming yet, there were some Bloodroots buds poking up and may fully open in a few more day. And at least they only had some rain on them today and not snow this time.
Bloodroot Bud
Today was a nice spring day, but I didn’t have time for a walk in the woods to hunt for wildflowers as I still a lot of limbs that came down over the long winter that needed to be picked up off my lawn. I did spot some Spring Beauties leaves but no blossoms yet so will have to hunt for blooms in upcoming days.
Hunting for Blooms
Things are slowly starting to sprout and green up, but near my pond it looked more like autumn with the fallen color leaves under the water. If it wasn’t for the tadpoles swimming in and out around the leaves, the leaves almost looked like they weren’t in water.
Autumn Underwater
The chipmunk should try to hide from me as I wasn’t too happy that it took four days to herd the little rodent out of my garage. And that was after he knocked several things over as it roamed around in off limits territory.
Troublesome Chipmunk
The first butterflies returned two weeks ago, but they haven’t been able to bask in the sun with the recent rainy days. Red admirals are very territorial and the females will only mate with males with superior flight abilities who can hold territory. Females select males with those traits that will increase the mating success of their offspring.
Return of the Red Admirals
April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but it also makes the few brave April flowers a little wet, like these Siberian squills, a native plant of southwestern Russia, the Caucasus, and Turkey (but not native to Siberia). The blue color helps brighten a rainy day but it is becoming invasive in Midwestern United States.
Showers on Siberian Squills
Dabbling ducks, like the Blue-winged Teals, forage in shallow waters such as flooded fields and marshes. They feed by tipping up rather than diving to reach aquatic vegetation and other food items. When taking flight, they spring into the air instead of pattering across the water.
Male Blue-winged Teals
A late April Sunday walk through the woods would be nice to search for wildflowers, but today it was a bit chilly and the ground still soggy plus the late spring has very few wildflowers open yet. I did find a “wild” flower on my lawn though. Snow Glory, also called Glory-of-the-Snow, is a small bulb-producing plant native to western Turkey and garden centers sells this ornamental bulb. I had some planted in my retaining wall beds, but now they have escaped, relocating on different areas of my lawn, even up a steep hill.
Wild Flower
