A day made a big difference with the wildflowers as the great white trillium opened up, although the blossom is rather small because the deer eat the flower most years before it can put much energy into the rhizome causing smaller blooms or kills off the plant. I wonder how many days this lonely trillium will last before the deer finds it.
Season’s First Trillium
The Hepatica is the first wildflower that blooms in my woods, but the patch of hepaticas with white blossoms open several weeks later than my pink purple patch so they get lost among the bloodroots. Some of the trilliums behind the hepaticas have buds and maybe open soon if my deer don’t eat them first.
White Hepaticas
It must finally be spring as several mosquitoes were after me when I was picking branches off my lawn this evening. Plus a few more wildflowers have opened up like the wood violets and these Virginia Bluebells, which is a native wildflower with bell-shaped blossoms.
Blue from Virginia Bluebells
Yesterday I spotted a butterfly and then I saw a different butterfly today as well as the first dragonfly of the season at my pond. The Common Green Darner is a common dragonfly and are one of the first dragonflies to be seen in the spring. They are a skilled aerial predator and they eat many types of flying insects, such as flies, gnats, moths, butterflies, mayflies, damselflies, mosquitoes, and even other smaller dragonflies.
Common Green Darner
My lawn had a moving motion to it with all the birds covering the ground the last few days as the returning sparrows and warblers look for seeds. Many of them are the White-throated Sparrow with their patch of yellow and white throat. The White-throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco have been known to occasionally mate and produce hybrids.
White-throated Sparrow
May Day might celebrate the return of spring, but the cold, windy day didn’t feel like a nice spring day. The number of flowers open for May Day this year are not that many, but a few more daffodils are starting to bloom.
May Day Daffodils
Even though there were snowflakes in the morning, by afternoon more spring birds made their appearance again, like this Yellow-rumped Warbler, who is a versatile forager from catch flying insects to eating berries.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
The sky this evening was filling in with clouds, bringing the chance of snowflakes by morning.
Bringing More Snow
This yellow trout lily is close to blooming but hopefully it waits a week until it is done snowing and below freezing nights. I have several patches of single leaf trout lilies but those do not flower, only the plants with two basal leaves will blossom. So hopefully the deer won’t nibble on this one when it finally opens since I have so few of them.
Lily Not Open Yet
The cold weather seems to have most of the chipmunks hiding underground yet as I have only spotted a few this spring and the woods are quiet from their chirping calls too.
Few Chipmunks Around
