I Know, I'm Behind...

OK, I've been remiss as a blogger and, to a lesser extent, as a phenologist.  I have all sorts of excuses, though they all boil down to one, really... I've been on school trips.  This means that a lot of the observations I've made haven't been here, but rather 2 hours north or 2 hours south.  It also means I'm extremely busy, and extremely tired.  So some data has been lost.  I know.  Irretrievable.  A day of laziness, data lost forever.  There's always next year. 

At any rate, I'm typing this on May 23, but I've dated the post 5/16, because I actually did take these pictures on that date.  Just didn't make it to step 2, uploading (or step 3, writing, or step 4, publishing...)  So here's just a taste of what was happening a week ago:

Columbine blooming.

Dogwood (red-osier) blooming.

Chokeberry blooming, and feeding a big fat bee. 

Honeysuckle blooming.  All over, because they're terribly invasive. 

Also important to note: we had our last freeze on 5/14, which was a very cold day.  I don't think it topped 40 as a high... there may have also been frost on 5/17.  There was where I was sleeping, and that was SOUTH of here, so it would make sense.  But I wasn't home to witness it.  

Slow and Steady...

Turtles are laying eggs!

Here are things in full bloom in the prairie today:

Golden Alexander and spiderwort color the prairie with yellow and purple...

Cream Indigo

Wild Rose

Canada Anenome

Columbine

Prairie Alumroot

Phlox

Jumping In...

Having stopped writing for so long, it's hard to start again. I feel like I have to have something spectacular to say, something more than just that the columbines are in full bloom, and the lilies of the valley. The prairie alumroot. The phlox. The golden Alexander, Jacob's ladder. Shooting star and may apples. Although this is what I need to write, I suppose... Right now, there is plenty to report, though we are sort of in the lull between spring flowers and summer ones. Plenty happens in that lull, though, it's still spring, after all.

In the past four weeks, I started and finished the spring camping trips that I take with students. I traveled to Devil's Lake in Wisconsin and then to Warren Dunes, MI, for two rainy and chilly weeks in a row. (Both were beautiful...) Our front yard has been transformed from turf grass into a native garden and all the vegetables and herbs are in the ground. And finally, on Memorial Day, it got hot. Sweat-while-you're-doing-nothing hot... this, following a 48 degree high on May 26, which tied the record for coldest May 26 here ever! Spring in the Midwest...

School winds down this week for the summer, but we're busy busy all through the month of June. I shall try to be better about keeping data and blogging...

Yesterday...

May apples and columbines both bloomed yesterday.

One Warm Day...

... and things are popping up all over the place.
Daffodils in the yard, which may have even been there under the snow, became visible today.

Here is a baby columbine. The tiny buds on my Am. Hazel have started opening as well, but they are too tiny for me to photograph. Also, pick up a few of winter's decomposing leaves, and I found all sorts of squirmy life. Worms, centipedes, little roly polies, and some tiny white bugs are all active and plentiful under there...

Also heard, seen, or reported by a third party:

• killdeers, today.
• sandhill cranes, a few days ago, reported by fivecrows' father.
• a bat, reported by fivecrows,
  
• herons, seen by me today but earlier in the week by fivecrows,
  
• our porch raccoon is back to looking longingly (or with loathing, I'm not sure) into our window.
• cedar waxwings, also seen by fivecrows.
• it is very muddy!
  

Ice is still on the lakes, but there's a lot of melted water on top of it...

The birds and the bees

The point of a flower, of course, is the seed. Spring's blooms are going to seed now (if they haven't already). Here's a look at celandine poppies as they go from flower to seed pod. (All the pictures were taken today; the plants started flowering early and still aren't finished, so they are simultaneously at all stages in the process...)

A new flower (next to a forming seed pod). The stamen haven't let go their pollen yet and everything looks fresh.
A fully open flower, displaying, at the base of the pistil, the swelling ovum which will become the seed pod. The pollen is mostly gone, which is good, because the petals, whose job is to call in the pollinators with their ultraviolet "Eat at Joe's!" signs, are starting to look ratty. They will fall off soon, leaving...
A newly-formed seed pod, pistil still attached. It's not large, less than 1/2 inch at this point, though the photo doesn't show this. It will grow until...
It's ready to start to burst open (the pistil will split into three strands soon...). At this point it's almost an inch long, and still bearing seeds. But soon they will pop out...
And it's popped open and distributed the seeds, which will grow tiny little celandine planties, some of which are already present under the parent plants!
Here is a ready-to-burst pod split open so the seeds inside are visible (also note split pistil in top left of photo).

Some other seeds forming...

1. Columbine plant showing seed pods and flowers.

2. Columbine seed pod, still green. It will turn brown and dry up, and the seeds, which look like poppy seeds , will spill out.

3. Anenome seed pod

4. Wild geranium seeds, brown and ready behind green and almost-there.

5. Prairie smoke, displaying the reason for its common name.

6. Pasqueflower.

This is not a seed, I recognize, but it is a cool cicada shell I found while braving the mosquitoes to attack the creeping charlie in the humidity, and activity which lasted half-hour, probably didn't help that much in the long run, and will leave me scratching for days.

A green world

Time marches on... leaves are getting bigger and the whole world looks green.  It would seem summery if it weren't cold!

• Wild geraniums peak bloom
  
• Pussytoes peak bloom
  
• Shooting star peak bloom
  
• Lilacs peak bloom
  
• Baneberry peak bloom
• Columbines beginning bloom (see sketch)
  
• Lily of the valley beginning to bloom
  
• Jacob's ladder past its prime
  
• Bluebells past their prime
  

In the garden, hoped to plant tomatoes, peppers, melons, basil, etc. today -- but didn't due to predicted lows in the 30s tonight.  Bummer.  

More Bird Nerdery

OK, seriously, people... I am going to sprout binoculars and a field guide soon.  I have seen my third bird-nerdy bird in as many days.  This morning on the way to school, way up in the trees -- a flash of red that was distinctly non-cardinal.  No pointy head.  Black wings.  Have you guessed yet?

That's right.  A scarlet tanager, I'm fairly certain.  They summer here and winter South or Central America, so a pretty cool sighting for me.

And speaking of flashes of red... the first columbines have opened.  (My camera thought it was dark enough to need a flash.  It is raining this morning, but it's a bright rainy day, and I'm not sure I agreed with the camera... but no time to argue this morning.)  

Also, crab apples are starting to drop their petals, like warm snow falling around the trees.