Is It Spring Yet?

Oh boy, it sure IS!  Well over 70 degrees today, with a radiant blue sky from horizon to horizon!  And yesterday was almost as lovely, when my friend Sue and I walked on Bog Meadow Nature Trail just outside Saratoga Springs.  What a day to be out, with the forest floor finally free of snow, and the little brooks cheerfully tumbling down every hillside!

Aside from hundreds of Skunk Cabbage spathes and their greening leaves, we didn't find any spring flowers in bloom at Bog Meadow yesterday.  But we did see our first snake of the season -- this rusty-brown fellow slithering away as fast as it could, as we chased after, cameras clicking.

The snake darted into a sedge tussock and then stopped dead, with just its head protruding.  We were quite puzzled about what this snake could be, since we'd never seen one quite this color before.  But since its skin matched the color of the mud in the bottom of some brooks, we posited that perhaps this was simply a mud-stained Garter Snake.  One of our snake-expert friends, John Vanek, later suggested the same.

We were also delighted to see both species of early-spring butterflies, the Eastern Comma and the Mourning Cloak, wafting through the sunlit woods and teasing us by briefly landing just out of focal range for our cameras.  I'm sharing one of my file photos of a Mourning Cloak, just to document its presence on this date, and also to share my delight in seeing this gorgeous creature on this lovely sun-warmed day.

Today was even more spring-like than yesterday, so I got started early to make the rounds of some of my favorite nature spots.  First stop was the Skidmore woods, where I was astounded to find a single Hepatica plant with its flowers already opened. (The leaves had wintered over under the snow.)

This was the only blooming Hepatica I found in an acres-wide search, but one was enough for me to celebrate the start of their blooming season.  In a week, we will find them EVERYwhere!

My next stop was the Orra Phelps Preserve in Wilton,  where the creeks that had been ice-covered only a week before were now dancing and sparkling and free of all ice.

I didn't really believe I would find Snow Trillium today, since I had checked on them only 3 days ago and found not even a leaf tip showing.  But lo and behold, there they were, these darling little flowers that Orra herself must have planted here, since New York is far north of their native range.  This trillium blooms so suddenly after emerging, I wonder if their flowers are already fully formed before they emerge from the ground.

Since the day was still young, I next headed north to Mud Pond at Moreau, which was dazzling blue under a cloudless sky.  There were many waterfowl out on the choppy waters, but much too far away for my camera to capture their image.  A birder I encountered on the path informed me that there were Hooded Mergansers and Wood Ducks among the Mallards and Canada Geese out there.

I walked along the water's edge, hoping to spy some Spotted Newts or Whirligig Beetles or maybe some frog or toad tadpoles.  Those I did not see, but what a nice surprise to see this Painted Turtle swimming along close to shore, newly emerged from a winter spent under the mud.

So, a glorious day, indeed!  And the Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs were celebrating this spring-warm weather as well, as this video I took in the Skidmore woods today can attest.

More Spring Flowers, Underfoot and Overhead

Warmer today, nearly 50, but still dark and damp when I went for a rain-coated walk in Saratoga's Congress Park.  That's why I was really surprised to see this one Coltsfoot blossom defy the drizzle and open wide amid a big patch of others still tucked in tight.  Such a bright little sunburst of a flower, it reassures us that sunshine and warmth are truly on the way.

The Silver Maple is our earliest maple to bloom, with flowers much less conspicuous than those of Coltsfoot.  But they're still worth a closer look  -- if you can reach a branch and drag it down to eye level.  That's how I managed to see this sprightly cluster of pistillate flowers, as red as a cherry Twizzler.

All over the ground beneath the tree were twigs containing clumps of more flowers that looked a little different.  I picked up a broken-off twig and noticed that these were all staminate flowers, some with protruding anthers, but most with those anthers still undeveloped.  How odd that these flowers should have fallen from the tree before they had matured.  I wonder if squirrels have been biting off twigs so that they can lick the sweet sap.

I hadn't known that Silver Maples bore male and female flowers on the same tree.  I learn something new every day.

Springtime Comes to Spring Run

The paved pathway of Spring Run Trail on the east side of Saratoga Springs

offers easy walking (and terrific bird-watching!) during springtime's mud season.

If it hadn't been so damp, dark, and cold today, I would have been able to post a photo of the third flower of spring to come into bloom.  Oh heck, I'll post it anyway, even if it was closed up tight against the damp dark cold.  At least it was open enough so I could see its bright yellow buttons, strewn like gold coins along the edge of Spring Run Trail here in Saratoga Springs.  Even though it's not a native wildflower, I always love to find Coltsfoot, the first flower of spring that actually looks like a flower!

When the sun comes out again, those tight little blooms will open wide, and the trail will be lined with miniature sunbursts.  As for today, it was not only dark and cold, it also rained a bit.  I was glad to take shelter under a bridge until the shower lightened into little more than a mist.

In addition to the Coltsfoot, I found other splashes of color along the trail, including the bright-yellow branches of small willow trees.

Red Osier Dogwood also added its vivid coloration to the trailside swamp.

Here was another small tree (a willow, I believe) that had the most amazingly colorful branches of green, red, orange, and yellow, and they were also delightfully twisty and curly.  I wonder if this could be the ornamental willow called Curly Willow, escaped to this swamp from somebody's garden.

I puzzled over what this fruit-bearing shrub might be, until I got home and found a matching photo of its fruits and twigs in G. W. D. Symonds's  The Shrub Identification Book.  Another escapee from cultivation, no doubt, since this is Privet, the same shrub that gets trimmed into dense hedges around the garden, while it assumes a much more open pattern when left to its own devices in the wild.

All along the trail, I could see the curvaceous red spathes of Skunk Cabbage protruding from the mud, now opened wide to release this plant's distinctive "fragrance" on the springtime air.

The springtime air was also filled with the songs and calls of birds, who find the stream-side thickets and swamps along the Spring Run Trail very much to their liking.  The loudest of those calls were those of the Red-winged Blackbirds, sounding their shrill "conk-a-REE-ahs"  throughout every cattail stand.  I could hear Robins, too, singing their cheery rain songs.    The birds are convinced it's truly springtime, even if we humans still feel a little doubtful about it.

PS:  My friend Jens Zorn had some fun with my photo of Red Osier, using Photoshop and his own creative gifts to transform it into a Pollock-like action painting.  I just had to share it here:

Another Baby-step Toward Spring

Chilly and dark today, compared to yesterday's sunlit warmth.  But a return to Mud Pond at Moreau revealed the inexorable progress toward spring that's occurring now.  Behold, the ice is mostly gone from the pond!  And so is the snow from most of the woods (excepting a few deep hollows).  But the big excitement today was finding this tiny flower:  the itty-bitty red sprout of an American Hazelnut female flower.  The second flower of spring!  Hooray!

I found just a few of the female flowers showing this lipstick-red fringe, and I don't believe they are open enough yet to receive any air-borne pollen from the male catkins.  As of yet, there is no pollen on the air, anyway, since the scales of the catkins are still tightly closed.

Give us a few more sunny warm days, though, and flower love will soon fill the air!

The Big Birds Are Back! (Butterflies, too!)

Except for a cold raw day on Easter, we've had a string of spring-like days, warm enough to have melted most of the snow in the woods.  With the temperature nearing 60 today, I hardly needed a jacket as I made my way along the trail of the Ballston Creek Preserve in Malta.

This wooded trail, maintained by volunteers with the land conservation organization Saratoga PLAN, leads to an open swamp containing hundreds of dead tree snags, a dozen or so of which hold the large disheveled nests of Great Blue Herons.  There's even a nice bench for folks to sit and observe all kinds of avian activity, in the trees, in the air, and also on the water.

I could see right away that the Great Blue Herons were back on their nests, although none was as yet settled down to brooding eggs.  It did look as if each had laid claim to its nest and was standing guard over it.

There was one nest, however, that appeared to have a bird nestled down within it, and a view through my binoculars revealed that this was no heron, but rather a Great Horned Owl.  I was happy to see that the owls had returned, most likely the same pair, to claim the same old heron's nest where they had successfully raised their owlets last year.  I wish my little camera had a greater zoom capability, but I think you can make out the two pointed "horns" on the owl in the right-hand nest.

In the opposite end of the swamp, a nest that is much bigger than all the rest can be easily seen.

This is the nest of a pair of Ospreys, the same nest they return to each year.  And sure enough, I could see one of the pair perched on a nearby tree.

It wasn't long before the mate came flying in, carrying new sticks to refurbish the nest.

While I watched, the same bird soared away again, and soon returned with new material.

I sat on the bench to observe all this avian activity, enjoying the soft warm air and the various sounds of the swamp, including the honking of Canada Geese and the low motorboat growl of the Pickerel Frogs' mating calls far out in the swamp.  I half expected to hear the shrill din of Spring Peepers throughout the swamp, or the guttural croaks of Wood Frogs from several of the vernal pools that are now almost ice-free here in this woods.  But as yet, these frogs were still silent.  I bet in a week, if the weather stays mild, this little pool will be alive with froggy orgies.

The wildflowers, as yet, are still snug underground.  But the pretty red leaves of Hepatica, just now emerged from their winter snowcover, will indicate where to look for some of the earliest flowers to bloom.

Even though the day was so wonderfully spring-like, I hardly expected to see this bright-colored butterfly flitting by, like a little orange flame wafting through the air and landing ever-so-briefly on the path before me.  I recognized it as an Eastern Comma Butterfly, one of our very few butterflies to winter over as an adult and emerge on the first warm days of spring.

 I wish it had stayed put long enough for me to take its photo, but alas, it was gone before I could disengage my camera from my pocket.  I copied this photo, taken by a woman named Dawn Dentzer, from a Sudbury (MA) Valley Trustees website I found online.  I just had to share with my readers the thrill of seeing such unexpected brilliance, when all else around was the color of mud and dead leaves.  Spring is here, indeed!

Spring is Almost Upon Us!

Wow!  Really balmy today!  Forecasts call for temps near 60, can you believe it?  It sure didn't feel that spring-like yesterday when I visited Orra Phelps Nature Preserve in Wilton to find the trails still covered in deep snow.

REALLY deep snow, in some spots!

But I was hoping the Skunk Cabbage swale might already be snow-free, and I wasn't disappointed.

And sure enough, this muddy patch was dotted with the fat Morocco-red spathes of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), some of which were open enough that I could peek inside.

And look what I found!  A spadix already shedding pollen!  The first flower of spring is here at last!

Thinking I might find our next flower to open, the American Hazelnut, I drove on up to Mud Pond at Moreau, stopping along the way to gaze at this wide open stretch of the Hudson River.  Just look at all that gorgeous blue water and blue sky!  Gets your hopes up, doesn't it?

Mud Pond, however, was still frozen over from shore to shore, except where beavers keep the water open around their lodge.  But the eastern bank of the pond was mostly free of snow, with a bright afternoon sun warming the path.

Of course, I did not expect to find any flowers opening along this trail, but I did rejoice at the sight of so many beautiful evergreen plants just emerging from the snow cover.  Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) won't bloom until mid-summer, but its shiny green leaves looked as fresh and lovely as ever.

The same could be said for its cousin, the Striped Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata).

It always amazes me to find the berries of Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) as fat and red (and tasty!) as they were before the winter snows covered them.

The fruits of Partridge Berry (Mitchella repens) were also plump and red, and their foliage such a lovely green.

Fan Clubmoss (Diphasiastrum digitatum) can take the worst that winter brings them, and still they emerge from the snowbanks as sprightly and green as if they were newly sprung from the earth.

After witnessing all that illusory green freshness, of course I was disappointed to find the male catkins of American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) still closed up as tight as they'd been all winter.  There will be no hope of finding the tiny red sprouts of the female flowers until those catkins open their scales and start shedding their airborne pollen.  But today is warm, and tomorrow will be too.  So have courage, my fellow plant nerds, it won't be long!