April and May showers bring early spring flowers

My beautiful Boodroot is in full bloom, and is one of my earliest springtime flowers.

The Showwinner Tulips were the first to bloom, and their blooms are almost gone as the other tulips (I only have a few left that the moles haven't demolished) have flower buds on them. Whether they will still bloom after this cold morning freeze, only time will tell...

Daffodils are happy flowers. Each grouping is a beautiful bouquet.

They bring such joy to my life. I buy yellow giant daffodils to fill my eyes with the color of sunshine on dreary, springtime days in Maine.

Daffodils line the side yard and are in almost all of my flower beds. I have so many varieties. This particular grouping reminds me of women wearing pantaloons!

Enough about daffodils! I also have gorgeous Giant Hyacinths. There are yellow, purple, and pink ones that are in two of my stump gardens. Unfortunately, the moles have destroyed many of them.

And, to round out the earliest of the springtime flowers, is the delicate Spring Larkspur. I have three groupings that survived the initial planting, and they are all near my birding bench behind the feeding station. I love sitting on the bench and gazing down upon these pink beauties!

Spring birds

Well, the Baltimore Orioles have arrived.

And, they sure weren't expecting snow!

Drew made sure to put a roof over their heads to give them a bit of protection from the snow while they sup upon their grape jelly. By the way, the "roof" is an upside down flower pot base that Drew drilled a hole through to secure the hummingbird feeder to;-)

Late Spring Snow

What is going on out in our neck of the woods! We've got more snow...Oh noooo...

I hope the weather report is wrong that we could get upwards of 3". I'm hoping for no more than an inch!

Snow on and off until around noon, and then wind for the next week! Check out the "Feel-Like" temperatures in the low 20's. Brrr......

SNOW TOTAL FOR 2019-2020 WINTER SEASON = 63"

Northwoods Frog Call Phenology

Check out these frog calls over the course of Spring and Summer. We love capturing audio of frogs in the woods and at the pond, and this chart and audio will help us identify the frogs we hear.

"The Wood Shed" a poem by Mary Oliver

"For weeks, the center of the Universe is the woodshed, which I keep filling,

which I keep emptying and filling, working every morning.

in the light-soaked yard among the heaps of pink oak, yellow birch, red pine.

Sometimes, I rest a little.

Then, I gaze out from the yard into the world, or I gaze into myself.

But mostly I give attention to what I am doing...

cutting, chopping, stacking. I have a good time.

This is how it is, year after year... everything put by, nothing kept,

everything used up.

And that, as much as anything, is the wonder of it, I say philosophically...

how it all gathers and vanishes,

how it all goes up into smoke."

Homemade Wood Rack

New wood rack ready to be filled

Our old pallets are getting weaker with age, so Drew crafted a new wood rack out of 26 year old pressure-treated lumber that came off of our front deck when it was replaced in 2012. 

Bricks and pressure treated cross pieces

Waste not, want not, is his motto. Never throw anything that could be useful away (as far as building materials are concerned.) 

A separate cross piece was later also screwed above the lumber in the center for more stabiity.

The first new wood rack is filled. It is a somewhat low stack for stability purposes

Drew was wondering when that wood would become useful. He has just enough to construct two more racks to stack the wood.

And, here is Drew's trusty foreman keeping track of the building of his new home! He is waiting for the add-on stack to make a longhouse. He gave the rack a bushy tail's up of approval!

Barred Owl calling...

 A Cutie Hootie Owl was calling in the woods next to the pond during this calm, early morning hour.

The loons were calling this morning

 Lovely loon calls this morning. 4am seems to be the bewitching hour! There is nothing like it...so soul soothing when they are just calling calmly;-)

Did you know that the different loon vocalizations have different meanings?  Loon.org is a great loon conservation website for information and audio clips (with their meanings.) I also really liked this quote from the blog of the Cable Natural History Museum in Michigan.

"Loon Language: The mournful wail of a common loon echoes across the glassy water. From a neighboring lake, another loon replies with the same smooth cry. The loons are keeping track of one another, maybe as neighbors, maybe as mates, maybe as rivals.   Sometimes the still night air is pierced by the maniacal laughing yodels of two male loons. This signifies a battle over territory. Home territory means a lot to loons. The longer a male resides in the same territory, the greater his chance of raising chicks to adulthood. The resident male will fight to the death if necessary to defend his island, lake or bay. Even if the invading male wins, the resident female will stay on the territory with the new male.   An invading loon, looking for his own place to raise a family, will fly over an occupied territory and first give the wavering tremolo flight call. If the resident male is willing to fight for the prime real estate, he will reply with a yodel. The invading loon can tell by the lowest note in the tremolo approximately how big the defender is, and use this information to decide whether a fight is in his favor or not. If he chooses to fight, the invader replies with his own unique yodel. Loons can tell each other apart by their calls, and even third-graders can tell loons apart by looking at sonograms of their yodels!"

Stone, Emily M. “Natural Connections: Exploring North Woods Nature Through Science and Your Senses-Loon Language.” http://cablemuseumnaturalconnections.blogspot.com/2012/06/loon-Language.html, 26 June 2012.

Early morning cacophony on Caesar Pond

Crrrraaaaazzzyyy early morning on Caesar Pond. At 4am, two loons started calling in a wild way, which set off a barred owl to hooting. This set off some coyotes to howling and yipping, which scared up some mallards that started quacking, all accompanied by the spring peeper choir. This lasted for about 10 minutes and then all went still again...

We need to get the sound recorder over to the pond by 3:30am, on calm mornings, because we missed recording all of this. Drew was on the porch listening while I was fumbling and bumbling and practically falling out of bed in my haste to hear it all...

Hummingbird and Jelly feeders are waiting for customers!

Drew put out the hummingbird feeders and the grape jelly feeder. 

Now, all we need are the birds.

There is grape jelly for the fruit eaters, like Baltimore Orioles, sapsuckers, and catbirds, and sugar nectar for the hummingbirds.

I also saw the first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the season today.