Yay! I've been watching the woods behind our house for growing things ever since the snow melted a few weeks ago. There's been a lot of eager waiting. Now all of a sudden -- in just the past few days, really -- little plants have started sprouting up all over the forest floor. And while I was wandering in the woods this afternoon I finally got to see my first wildflowers of the year!
These Bloodroot blooms are such a welcome sight, like brilliant beacons among the dead leaves:
Once I noticed one Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) plant in bloom, I started seeing these dainty little flowers everywhere:
I love the pale pink veining on these little flowers:
Some of the Spring Beauty flowers were much paler, and still very pretty:
It's so exciting to get to discover the plants that live on this wooded slope. Every new appearance is a surprise! I was happy to see these Mayapple plants pushing their way above ground:
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) leaves are now scattered across many areas of the forest floor; these leaves are still some of my favorite spring sights:
This small patch of Ramps was an exciting discovery! I'll be sure to sample a couple of these onion-related plants in the next few weeks:
Big clumps of what I think are Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) have sprouted up seemingly overnight. I've never encountered these plants before, and I'm very curious to see them when all those blue flower buds open up:
Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) plants are abundant in these woods, and they're on the brink of blossoming. I really like their jagged silhouettes:
Outside of the woods, a male Yellow-rumped Warbler (the first warbler I've seen this year!) was looking especially fancy among Red Maple blooms yesterday afternoon:
And not quite on the topic of flowers, but still related to the changing seasons, I was happy to meet a singing Brown Thrasher along our driveway:
I plan to check on these woods every few days; updates on the progress of our local flora will certainly appear here. Hooray for spring!
I was happy to return to Silver Sands State Park this morning for the start of a new season. As I have for the past two summers, I'll be monitoring this beach again for Piping Plovers and other potential nesting shorebirds this year. This will actually be my last summer in Connecticut -- big changes are coming in the next few months -- and I plan to take full advantage of my proximity to the Long Island Sound while I still can.
Today was a perfect beach day: warm and sunny, and with plenty of spring-like things to see. I'm assuming these Ring-billed Gulls were feeling appropriately amorous, judging from their strange balancing act (which was accompanied by loud calls but no actual mating as far as I could see):
Behind the marshes next to the beach, a few Red Maples were just starting to bloom, looking particularly dramatic against the bright blue sky:
A pair of Mourning Doves walked right past me on the path. I've never noticed the splash of iridescent gold highlights on these birds' necks before, and it's kind of amazingly pretty:
(How is it possible that I've been keeping this blog for more than three years now, and this is the first time I've posted a picture of this common and placid bird? Mourning Doves clearly deserve more of my attention.)
In the fields at the back of the park, many of the bushes and trees had been stripped of their bark up to a couple of feet off the ground:
And a few minutes after I stopped to look at the bare trees (and to watch a couple of American Robins tussling in the grass), the culprits came bounding into the open:
These rabbits must have gotten hungry with all the snow we had this winter, but at least there's always bark to nibble, and they seem to be thriving now! A few of these creatures were chasing each other in and out of the underbrush, and I felt lucky to get to watch these wild bunnies being so active.
As I was driving out of the park at the end of my visit (no plovers yet), I came up behind a curious trio of pedestrians on the shoulder of the road:
Wild Turkey crossing:
How crazy and cool that we have these dinosaur-creatures just wandering around. Oh, you strange and awesome bird:
All in all, this morning was quite a wonderful start to a new season of beach visits. Hooray for warm weather, sun, and sand!
Snow!!
And here I thought yesterday's frost was pretty; the thick snowflakes that fell today made the landscape outside our windows nothing short of stunning. I especially love the way the snow accents the fall leaves at their peak. How often am I going to get to see our yard's Red Maple looking like this?
Despite the heavy snow, it was business as usual today for our resident Gray Squirrels. I can't tell: is this little one excited about the snow, perturbed, or just indifferent?
I do so love snow. What an amazing birthday present. :)
I was back at the Naugatuck State Forest this morning, and the baby Great Horned Owl was up and about, toddling around the big nest all by itself:
Baaaaaby! Such a cute little ball of fluff. :D Look, it even has little baby ear tufts, just like its mommy and daddy:
I'm so glad I happened to find this little family -- what a fun thing to look forward to checking whenever I'm in the woods. :D
Here's one of the Yellow-rumped Warblers I saw flitting around yesterday and today. It's a female, and she's not as bright and flashy as the yellow/black/white males, but she's still pretty. She's got that splash of yellow below her wings, and I think you can just barely see a tiny bit of the yellow on the top of her head and on her butt in this picture (look right behind her wing tips). There were a couple of males around as well, but they weren't about to sit still for a picture.
And speaking of sitting still for pictures, the chipmunks are getting bolder as it gets further into spring. This fellow was not only refusing to run away scared, but was actually yelling at me, presumably telling me to get off of his territory -- not exactly the meek chipmunk behavior I've been seeing up to now. I heard more chipmunks yelling ("squeaking" is probably a more accurate term) in other parts of the forest as well -- I guess it's time to stake claims and stick by them!
I made several other small discoveries today, including this little creature who was hiding under a rock in a stream. I'm guessing this must be some kind of crayfish. (Out of curiosity, I searched for "crayfish in Connecticut" on the internet and found out that we have at least seven species here... who knew!) Whatever it was, this creature was very tiny and appeared to be missing a front claw. I wish it luck and a long crustacean-y life.
Last picture: This is a small flowering Red Maple that was growing at the edge of one of the lakes. I love the bright orange/red color of the blossoms, and I wonder if this is the same species of maple that's showing off its deep red flowers in my yard.(I suspect that it is.)
And the woods continue to be awesome -- no surprise there. :D
I guess I've never really taken the time to appreciate maple trees in the spring before. This year, however, with maples blooming right outside my windows, I can't help noticing them. And, well, they're kind of gorgeous.
Not fancy or showy by any means, but I'm in love with this deep red color, and the masses of them all together (even in a not-quite-focused photo)... yeah, it's pretty nice.
I wish I could get closer to the blossoms and examine them more fully... but that's the problem with trees -- they're just so darn tall. :P
UPDATE 4/23/11: More specifically, these are Red Maple trees, as I found out after I managed to see another example of the flowers up close and did some more research online.
I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear that we have Gray Squirrels running around in our yard pretty much all the time. I guess they're one of those "normal" animals that are easy to overlook, because they're so common. But lately I've been noticing that they're actually quite interesting little creatures, and more than a little cute.
This morning, one of our resident Gray Squirrels was sitting way up high in the maple tree in our backyard, making a meal out of the buds on these branches (buds that look just about ready to burst open, I might add). This squirrel was really scarfing them down, and Paul and I were having fun observing the proceedings through the binoculars.
Incidentally, this particular squirrel has definitely had some close encounters in its time -- it's missing half of its squirrelly tail, and I noticed some spots of bare fur as well. I'm guessing this squirrel narrowly escaped some sort of life-threatening situation (almost becoming someone's dinner, maybe?), but it's survived to climb and eat, and it seems to do just as well as the other squirrels.
Mmm, maple buds. :)
NOM!
(Also, I feel like this squirrel should have a name. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm vetoing "Stumpy.")
