In like a Lion...

Happy March!  

I spent a lot of time looking down today on my walk.  There were several reasons for this.  First, it was extremely windy and also spitting rain.  Also, last nights torrential rains and thunderstorms left puddles to avoid and also WORMS! all over the pavement.  Definitely something to avoid, as a person.  I did enjoy watching 2 robins hop around and pick them up, though. 

Looking down, I got to see a lot of bulb plants poking their foliage up through the soil... The rounded still fingers of daffodil leaves, the wide pointy tulip leaves... Every yard has its signs of spring emerging.  Still, I was pretty surprised to see this actual purple crocus poking through!  (This same yard had many purple and a sprinkling of yellow crocuses, all in this stage of bloom.)

At one point when I did look up, I was taken by how much the aspen catkins had changed in the past few days -- and how wet and sorry they looked, like a soggy dog!

BTW... glad I got out for a little walk before this happened:

This was the afternoon view out my office window... thick, whirling, swirling snow.  I guess Baba Marta has some dirty carpets.  (Explanation: today at school we celebrated Baba Marta day, which is a Bulgarian holiday to welcome and encourage the start of spring.  Grandmother March is very temperamental and gets angry or sad and then happy as the March weather quickly changes.  We were told than when it snows in March, that's Baba Marta cleaning the dust out of her carpets.  We all learned something new today!)

Still Warm...

Today we took an after-school walk, and for a good 10 minutes there was a cloud of gnats surrounding us.  That certainly didn't seem wintry.  Just saying. 

These aspen catkins have been peeking out for a while, but they definitely got bigger and fuzzier over the weekend.

And the vernal witch hazel is flowering, its tiny but bright orange petals uncurling from their buds. 

Tree Flowers and Gusting Winds

I took this photo yesterday to show how the aspen catkins have progressed from grey puffballs to pendulous flowers that are showing their inner green. 

I noticed this morning that the elms have started flowering.  I don't think I'll get a photo, though, as it's difficult to take pictures of tiny tree flowers (full stop) but it's really difficult when the wind is blowing at over 20 mph with gusts (frequent ones) at over 40 mph.  Twigs won't hold still.

Yeah, today is not my favorite type of weather.  Temperature in the 40s, intermittently rainy, and constantly windy.  But I guess this is the price of spring's arrival.  Over night I was awakened by thunder and lightning at one point, and by high winds -- they were that noisy -- at another point.   

In Anticipation...

I took this photo of aspen catkins yesterday.  This is the first time I've posted such a picture in February -- there are similar photos in March for every year previous to this... interesting. 

Tomorrow, it's predicted to hit 60 degrees!  (Though with winds almost as high, 40-50 mph, so it won't be as much of a treat as it could be.)  Already, it's slushy and muddy.  

Catkins can!

Alder catkins swelling.

Aspen catkins are getting inciting, too...

Also... What a difference a day makes... The red wing blackbirds that last week I heard but couldn't see, then saw a few... Now there are armies of them, epaulettes on fiery red display, yelling at me wherever I go.

Ani, I just found this amusing:

Think there were any hungry rabbits here this winter?

There Are Signs!

A few updates:

1.  Sandhill Cranes are flying north... This afternoon I heard their unmistakable, primitive call, and felt a shadow as they flew between me and the sun.  I looked up to see a "v" of about 40 of them.

2.  I heard a red-wing black-bird, but I couldn't for the life of me find it.  (By the next day -- Mar 18 -- they were all over!)

3.  Plants are starting to do things, too... slowly, to be sure, but there are some aspen catkins emerging.

Ick.

The nice weather lasted... 1 day!  Yesterday was rainy -- a cold front coming through, and by evening the rain was really sleet.  This morning dawned COLD.  And muddy.  

Still, spring is marching on.  Goldfinches are gold, and daffodils are blooming.  Some shrubs -- black currants, lilacs -- are starting top leaf out, so that we can see a springy green haze in some places when we look across lawns and fields.  Catkins are finally fluffy on willows, aspen, and other trees...  

Oh, my!

Bluebirds and killdeers and herons, oh my!

Maple flowers and aspen catkins and pussy willows, oh my!

Celandine poppies and tulips emerging, oh my!

Have we SPRUNG?

I've Got the Fever

Spring came! With temperatures topping 60 today, we finally had one of those early warm days that makes you really feel like it's over, we're on our way out, Spring has Spring! Inevitably, these days come before a huge snow storm or something... but while it was here, I took full advantage. I walked at lunch, I walked after work. (The later was, ostensibly, for fitness. I walked instead of working out, which was my original plan. The problem with this is, I stop to look at things. I could somewhat alleviate this problem by not carrying my camera -- thereby also ensuring that I saw "the coolest thing ever" -- but not entirely. I'd still stop to study and admire things.) So anyhow... here are some of the discoveries, both phenologically significant and not:

Aspen catkins.

Bulb plants emerge, here, hyacinths.

The lake was filled with ducks (and geese and swans). I think these are goldeneyes based on the white cheek spot in the right photo... but I didn't have binocs and I'm not that great of a birder anyhow -- it's possible there were 5 types of ducks there rather than just 2 (the other being mallard). Note: That open water isn't on the same lake I always use to determine ice off, which is still covered. Have to remain consistent!

A maze of goose prints... they just looked cool.

And a maze of vole tunnels, with a little, igloo-esque house! The snow melted and they left it abandoned, a vole ghost town.

The moon and a redtail.

So many birds today... Cardinals calling constantly for the last week, robins galore, killdeer, a bunch of LBBs, and plenty of these RWBBs. I just chose to include the photo because it was a good picture.

Finally, this is today's mystery. If anyone knows this plant, please tell me what it is... These seedpods (2 inches long) were painfully thorny and stiff, filled with hard black seeds about 2-1/8 inch in diameter. The plant itself was about 2-3 feet tall with a thick stem and no leaves to be found. It branched in a pattern that reminded me of the flower heads on wild indigo.

I also sketched the mystery pod. But it had a lot of thorns and I kinda got tired of them...

Catkins

It's a sunny, beautiful day that is almost lovely enough to chase away my blah's...

Speckled alder catkins dangle in the wind, invisibly transferring their pollen. To the left, fingers that just brushed against the flowers demonstrate just how much pollen is in each flower cluster. I am amazed by plant forms always, but especially when regarding their reproductive parts. Humans hide these aspects of their biology and don't talk about them, but plants put it all out there, immodest. I think always of the title of Michael Pollan's book (which isn't about plant reproduction so much as plant domestication) The Botany of Desire. It (that title/phrase) runs through my mind every time I examine a flower, large or small...

Aspen trees, just a few days later than last year, have catkined. Their grey fuzz seems nearly to glow in the bright sun.

Also noted: female American Hazel flowers are not out yet, but the pink ends are just visible poking out of some buds.

Why I Live in Illinois

It's funny... a few days ago I posted about Oregon, and under the beautiful picture of the coast I lamented, "why do I live in Illinois?"... that post generated no comments. Then yesterday I post about 2 local trees that I don't even have to work to see... (well, actually I do have to work. Both those trees are at my place of employment. But the point is, they are right outside the door at my place of employment.) In less than 24 hours, I had 2 comments reminding me about how beautiful and special those trees are.

Aspen trees are native to large portions of the US, and people certainly don't think of IL when they think of aspens. I don't. I think of mountains first, and the north woods second, and IL not at all, really. But we have got a few here, their leaves quaking in the wind. Their greenish-whitish bark contains acetylsalicylic acid, which is also found in aspirin. (The trees are a favorite of beavers... maybe that's why beavers never get a headache even though they chew wood all the time?) Buh dum ching. (Ah, it's been a long day...)

Bur oaks are truly trees of the prairie. It sounds like an oxymoron, but these trees, with their thick bark, are adapted to survive life with fire. In crowded areas, they will grow tall to compete for sunlight... but in the prairie... in the prairie, they grow out. With gnarled, twisting branches they spread in all directions and sometimes dip down so low that they almost touch the ground. Thus they make good climbing trees -- you can hop right on to the branches and go toward the trunk, rather than the other way around.

And the acorn is, perhaps, the most amazing part of the oak. If it doesn't have a worm (Aside... a lot of acorns, if you keep them, turn out not to have oak seeds, but rather, insects. The bugs actually go to the oak flowers and the acorn forms around them, so to look at the acorn, you can't tell wither there's a worm eating the meat. Eventually, they eat all the insides and drill a hole to get out. I have seen this lead to hilarity... as when a student uses an acorn in an art project, which is hung from the classroom ceiling, and then one day little grubs are falling onto kids' desks... you can test an acorn for worms by putting it in water. A worm-free acorn will float, but the worms create air bubbles and make them float! So anyhow. If you have a worm-free acorn...) then this little thing, an inch long... it looks like nothing but it has the potential to become a whole oak tree. It is power and meekness combined in one. It is such a small thing that could become something fifty feet tall or wide and outlive us all... but which can be taken down by a bug. A tree of contradictions.

(Another fun use of the scanner!)

And while setting up my class this morning, I noticed that the maples, at their peak color, are just stunning. I'm lucky to live in an edge world, too... the historical edge of the prairie and the eastern woodlands. So here, we get to experience remnants or restored bits of each.

I suppose I have been nudged into gratefulness.

Actually, I have long seen the beauty in the prairie. Even in its winter brown state, it has a subtle loveliness. Amazing plant biodiversity and crazy insect life. Sometimes you have to look for the specialness -- it doesn't hit you in the face like an ocean or a mountain. But that almost makes it better, like we have a secret. However. I think the problems with my area of Illinois with which I have been grappling are more related to the human-influenced sense of place. I live in a world where most of the stores are in strip malls and are just like every other place. I guess that's becoming true everywhere, but here it seems worse. Maybe I just notice it more. I don't know. I could explain it more, but I've already written a lot about far less depressing things.

One quick phenology note: as of Monday, there were still meadowhawks in my yard. It's cold, but the dragonflies are hanging on!

The Birds and the Trees

Acorns are littering the ground underneath the bur oak trees...
Aspen trees are yellowing and leaves are blowing off during windier moments.

This morning was a bird-heavy morning. I saw grebes in the lake, disappearing and reappearing in new spots; mallards dabbling, geese flying south, and a heron stalking some prey. RWBBs were also very active, dipping and diving as my students disturbed them. Also saw goldfinches and some other LBBs, plus a chickadee. Oh, and gulls. In less than an hour, and I wasn't looking for birds. So it's a bird-heavy day.

Other notes:

• milkweed pods are splitting open and spilling their seeds.
• Very few purple asters are left -- just a few New England's remain. A lot of white ones are still flowering, though.
• Goldenrod are also going to seed.
• Grasshoppers are sluggish but coming out this morning...

Today in Photos

Today in photos:

I believe these interesting ice structures were formed the other night when it was super windy.  Waves formed on the lake and splashed water onto the shore, which froze, coating the plants, rocks, etc. in ice.

The storm was also apparently not good for fish.  There were about 15 of them in a 10-foot area of shore.  (fish photo by Chris)
Silver maple buds, swelling and getting ready to flower.  This makes me remember one of my first formal phenology experiences... When I was a freshman at Carleton, my friend and I used to go every morning to breakfast and look at the MN Star Trib.  In the winter-spring, the Strib did a feature called BudWatch.  A photographer went to the same bud at the same time every day and took a photo.  They published them (in full color) every day, and we followed religiously.  We watched it swell, and leaf out, and felt that spring had sprung before our eyes.  What a wonderful thing for a newspaper to print!
There is a woodpecker right in the center there.  He was pecking away amidst at least 10 robins, so here is a picture with a robin AND the woodpecker. 

And finally, aspen catkins.

Also seen, but not pictured, a muskrat swimming in the lake. 

Rain rain, go away!

The weekend was 48 solid hours of rain.  At times, it sprinkled; at other times, it was sheets of water pouring down so thickly that you couldn't see the edge of the yard.  Puddles formed where I have never seen puddles before (perhaps because the ground is still frozen under there).  Thunder and lightning occurred more than once.

Today is a small respite -- sunny, crisp, clear.  A thin layer of ice covers the many puddles that remain.  It is supposed to rain again tonight.  Yea. 

Speaking of ice... today is a momentous phenology day... ICE OFF.  Ice has been off small ponds for a few days now, but I have kept records for several years of ice off Lake Leopold.

Lake Leopold ice off dates: 

2006 = Mar 10; 

2007 = Mar 18; 

2008 = Mar 31.  

This is the earliest ice off in 4 years.  

In other news, some aspen trees have their catkins emerging (noted as early as Mar 3 in previous years).  They look just like pussy willow catkins -- fuzzy and grey -- except, of course, they are not on willow trees.  I am not sure if they are male or female.   

Lilac buds are sure huge and swollen, but it will be a while yet...