Spring's Arrival

Sitting back relaxing on our porch the evening before spring is to start we enjoy the first calls of the Pickerel Frog in our pond.

The first day of spring was very pleasant here it was sunny all day and reached 76 degrees. We actually had a butterfly list going 1 sulphur species, 5 Spring Azures, 1 Mourning Cloak and 2 anglewings that did not stick around for IDs. The pond had at least 12 Eastern Painted Turtles basking, 30 or more Eastern Red-spotted Newts (likely hundreds), Pickerel Frogs as well as Spring Peepers were calling. Along the pond I saw Northern Cricket frogs, Bullfrogs and Green Frogs.

Funnest thing I have seen in the pond was an Eastern Red-spotted Newt riding cowboy style on a frog twice its size. I think since we saw other newts mating, this one was trying to mate the stunned frog.

The peacock next door started calling again, great! I was hoping they had tired of the peacocks and gotten rid of them. If you were reading here last spring that male peacock called all hours of the night for months. We like having the windows open at night and the peacock is very loud.

No dragonflies or damselflies were found, they should be out now.

We took a short wild flower walk into our woods.

Wind Flower or Anemone
Just a few blooming in our ravine.

Trout Lily or Dog-toothed Violet, Erythronium americanum

These were just a few of hundreds in bloom on our property.

Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis from our woods.
Meg found 4 blooming plants, usually that is about all we find. One of my favorite wild flowers!

Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria

Thanks to Edith Hope and Anne Tanne for IDing the mystery plant in my garden! These yellow flowers told the entire story. From what I have heard it is terribly invasive and it will likely be removed from the garden.

Crocus 'tricolor'

Crocus 'bluebird'
Just a few more crocus from our garden, I just had to show these off a little.