Back Again!

    Well, I haven't been here for a bit. Spring came really early- it was almost as if Winter never got here. Our total snow for the entire Winter was less than an inch. That was good for driving, and things got so warm that I've been out on the bike a lot more than in previous years. We've had quite a few summer like days with temperatures in the eighties. What hasn't been good about it is that the snow we get in Winter usually soaks into the ground and keeps things a bit more moist. That barely happened. We've got about a 5" rainfall deficit for this year- but the heavy rains rolling in tonight and tomorrow will help quite a bit.
     Lots of things coming up early in the garden- the Columbine, both cultivated (the blue) and the native (the red/yellow) are in bloom early. The native looked like it was struggling a bit last year, with three small clumps. This year it's looking very healthy and is spreading. There's also a large patch of double Columbine up at the top of the hill that's going to be spectacular this year, when it finally does bloom.
     Various Milkweeds are sprouting here and there in the yard- we have Butterfly Milkweed, Swamp, Purple, Eastern Purple, Common and Indian milkweeds sprouting.  When the Monarchs get here later this year they'll have both nectar to feed on and food plants for the caterpillars.

Click on the pictures for a better view.    

Frozen Squirrel

As I was doing some dishes this morning I thought I spooked a squirrel that was acquiring a peanut from the deck- he jumped up on the deck rail and then froze. Hmm. Let's take a look around. The reason he wasn't moving was sitting in one of the ornamental plums looking for breakfast. Watched the Coopers for a bit and several Chickadees and Titmice flew in to scold the hawk (this called "mobbing"). The first Chickadee that flew in apparently didn't see the hawk, landed on a branch about three feet away from it, and left a lot faster than it arrived when it realized what was sitting on the branch.

The hawk finally left after hanging out in the yard for over an hour.

Newsflash: Hawk came back. Looked out the basement door and it was sitting in a bush just above the stairwell, five feet away, looking back at me.

Disappearing Birds

As I was in the dining area this morning something a little larger than the usual avian and mammalian denizens on and underneath the bird feeder flew in and landed on the deck rail. Everything else at the feeder vanished immediately. This is a juvenile Coopers Hawk looking for a meal- you put bird feeders up, and sometimes what you attract becomes a meal itself. The juvenile Coopers have a low survival rate- while they're learning to feed themselves they miss on about four out of five attempts.