I might be just as prickly as this dried up wild cucumber pod as I watch the snow falling outside. Spring is supposed to be here and winter over but winter won’t go away so the critters and birds are probably feeling as prickly as me too.
Prickly Wild Cucumber
For the last week, I have heard Sandhill Cranes way up in the sky but haven’t spotted them as they can be heard up to 2.5 miles away. And while some of my property is rather marshy at the moment from the snow runoff and recent rains, I don’t have the wetland habit large enough for them to nest in so I have to see them on other marshes and bogs.
Their long windpipe create the crane’s unique tone of their trumpeting sound and their long legs provide the graceful courting dances, as well as stepping through a wet meadow with ease. But their long legs will come in handy tomorrow night will possible foot of snow falling so they just might want to head south again for a few more weeks.
Sandhill Cranes
Geese have been visiting my pond the last few weeks but I haven’t spotted any ducks yet. I rather have the ducks as they don’t leave their calling card on the banks, but then I haven’t cleaned out the wood duck house yet so maybe a good thing they haven’t arrived back yet.
Waiting for a Wood Duck
Although first full day of spring started out below freezing this morning, the partial sunshine will hopefully warm slightly above freezing so one might take a Sunday drive to view the migrating birds stopping at various areas on their trek farther north. One pond had some Lesser Scaup and Common Goldeneye ducks as well as some Snow Geese. And since the pond was call Goose Pond, there were a lot of Canadian Geese there too. The ducks were more shy than the geese and except for one, all the snow geese remained on the other side of the road. Madison Audubon Society’s Goose Pond is one of Wisconsin’s Watchable Wildlife Areas and a designated State Natural Area and more than 250 species of birds have been sighted at this prairie area around the ponds. My short recent visit there may have only reveal about 10 different species of birds but probably more can be found now that spring has officially arrived.
Goose Pond
Although I haven’t seen any flowers open in my yard yet, some hardy flowers have sprung up and they had another taste of snow overnight.
Crocuses Braving the Weather
St. Patty’s Day must have sucked all the green up yesterday and didn’t leave any left for today as it was a white morning with the new snowfall overnight. And the robins have been snowed more than the three times needed for spring to come so nature needs a counting lesson as I want green and not white.
March Snow
Many people, especially the Irish, may be wearing green, eating corned beef and cabbage, going to parades and of course drinking beer today for St. Patrick’s Day. Even though St. Patrick wasn’t born in Ireland, he is one of the patron saints of Ireland but his colors were blue and not green. But green is the color associated with the day and Chicago even dyes the Chicago River green each year since 1962. Some rivers are always greenish color, especially near melting glaciers like Sawyer Glacier on the end of Tracy Arm Fjord. The water in the fjord is green until it mixes with blue water at Holkham Bay.
Green Water of Tracy Arm Fjord
While my pond might have reached ‘ice out’ and is overflowing with the recent rain, some larger lakes and ponds are covered or partially covered in ice.
Ice Not Out Yet
My pond is finally reached “ice out” stage and the tadpoles and some tiny fish are swimming around, but no frog sighting yet. Open water means I could get some visiting waterfowl likes some ducks, besides the geese I had last week, but my pond is too small to get any visitors like trumpeter swans.
Graceful Trumpeter Swan
The first spring wildflower has emerged, although I had to travel two hours south to see it. In wetland areas, the skunk cabbage flower buds can warm up to 70 degrees, which thaws the ground and melts the snow to allow them to be one of the first wildflowers to bloom in early spring.
The flowers of the skunk cabbage appear before the leaves and the maroon hood is the spathe and the many petal-less flowers form the spiky spadix. The spathe opens more when the flower matures to allow more pollinators access. Its name comes from its unpleasant odor it emits to attract pollinators that are attracted to rotting meat. The scent is especially noticeable when the plant is bruised.
The Smelly Skunk Cabbage
