These are some young barn swallows before leaving in the fall and today I saw the first barn swallow back. Actually I heard it before seeing it just outside a barn. The adult barn swallows have a longer forked tail than these juveniles. Soon the nest building will occur and new eggs will be laid for another season.
Juvenile Barn Swallows
Last year must have been tough on the Yellow Trout Lily corms as so far I haven’t noticed any blossoms. Immature shoots only have one leaf instead of two leaves which the mature plants have and produce the flower. It takes four to seven years before it blooms and within the colony, only about a half of a percent will flower.
Missing Trout Lily Blossom
With the sunshine appearing this afternoon, I spotted a bird darting about catching insects near the pond. The little warbler is another recent arrival to its summer breeding ground. The Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warbler flashes its patches of yellow in the sun as he flutters after insects.
Warbler Watching
I had a pair of Blue-winged Teal ducks stopping at my pond for a brief stay on their way north. They are one of the last variety of ducks to migrate north in the spring and also one of the first to leave in the fall. Blue-winged Teal are the second most abundant duck in the country behind the Mallard, but they don’t seem to stay more than a few days at my pond. But they also don’t make use of my duck houses as they make their nest on the ground.
Blue-winged Teal Pair
I think the cold, wet weather has delayed some of the spring bird arrivals, but the Killdeer has been back for a while now. I always hear the Killdeer long before I see it and when I see them, it is normally in flight as they blend in with the ground cover even with their white band. Early naturalists called the noisy bird the Chattering Plover and the Noisy Plover.
Hidden Killdeer
My big furry visitor returned Friday night and it didn’t take long for the bear to knock my bird feeder pole down again. And this time he grabbed the suet feeder off my porch and carried it away in his mouth. There was a good chance the northern lights would have been visible, but with the bear back, I didn’t feel very safe walking up to the spot in the dark where I normally view the sky. This dark spot among the trees almost looked like a bear at first glance.
No Bear
These daffodils seem rather weary of the cold spring weather with their heads hanging down more each day.
Weary Daffodils
Today I spotted the first Jack-in-the-pulpit today even though it was harder to spot without its leaves open. It seemed rather pale looking without the sunshine and it definitely needed its hood to keep the rain off Jack inside the pulpit.
Wet Pulpit
Earth Day activities include many things like cleaning up trash from waterways, planting wildflowers that support pollinators, or just taking a walk to enjoy the beauty of nature. I planted some wildflower seeds today but didn’t get to the trash that ended up in the ditch yet. At least this creek didn’t have any cans or bottles floating in it.
Creek in Springtime
Another chilly day has slowed down the wildflowers and the sun didn’t poke out long enough for blossoms of the wood anemone to open. Maybe tomorrow will be sunny and warmer as a single plant can take five years or more to flower.
Wood Anemone Waiting to Open
