April 21 2024

Spring came this week.  Last week there were a few isolated flowers, but the rest of the scene was almost bare ground. Suddenly about two days ago the ground blossomed.  One Celandine Poppy suddenly became a hundred.  Last week there was one flower against the South Wall of the woodshop, and in a few days that one flower became a field of yellow.  And not just the Poppies, but a large number of May Apples opened before my eyes.  The Poppies themselves were started from a few that I drove back from Potsdam with, given me by Mary-Ann Cateforis.

Here are the May Apples.  Under the center of each green you will see a bud (I suppose that is the "Apple" that will open up to a white flower.

The Pulmonaria or "Lungworts" are spreading - their white-dotted leaves and flowers that open blue and gradually turn pink are making lovely mats low to the ground.  I don't know why they are named after Lungs, but there you have it.  Thanks again, Eleanor, for giving me the starter.  It's funny how the sight of each flower reminds me of a dear friend who started the patch years (in this case almost 40 years) ago.  The picture in the middle is probably going to be the Forget-Me-Nots.   Yes, it was.  The rightmost picture shows Forget-me-nots.  

The Red-pink Annual Honesty has just started to bloom in the front yard.  Second: The white Annual Honesty always blooms across the yard from the Reddish-pink one.  Third is wild Ginger. 

The Grape Hyacinths are another of a kind of tiny bulb flowers that have spread themselves thickly in both front and back yards.   The second kind is a less prolific kind with a two-tone body.  I still remember when Mary-Ann  Dimand (nickname Amaebi - yes she was nicknamed after a kind of Sushi!) said  its species name is "latifolium".  I just formally looked it up in iNat and found "Broad-leaved Grape Hyacinth", whose name is indeed Muscari latifolium.

The Japanese Quince takes a long time to finally blossom, but when it does, what a splash!  Actually iNat suggested Chinese Quince or Flowering Quince for a better name. Second picture:  Many years ago, Catherine Lamb gave me this Epimedium for the front yard.  I hardly notice the purplish leaves but the delicate whitish-gold flowers stand out.  This morning I see that @amujcinovic identified this plant as a Hybrid Barrenwort (Epimedium × versicolor) on iNaturalist!  See https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/207211298

That's a lot of plants.  These are just the ones that are blooming or almost blooming.  Let's go see some Ants.They mostly look like Nearctic Carpenter Ants.  This first one especially because its thorax is reddish!  Since these were running around in the same place, I'm guessing that they are all the same kind!

There were a few Beetles.   This one was identified as Dromius piceus, a Ground Beetle.   Next is a very common Weevil called the Redbud Seed Weevil or Redbud Bruchid.  Oh!  One of the flowering plants I didn't add up there was the Redbud, which is a legume, like beans or peas.  This little Beetle grows up inside and eats the contents of a seed pod.   Third here is  an unknown thing that looks like a Beetle, seen on April 6.    Fourth and fifth show the  Redbud from a couple of vantage points (both from second-floor windows)  on April 17. 

Suddenly the Trilliums are blooming!  This first one, with the worn-down red flower, is Sweet Little Betsy.  (We'll come back to the Bugs in a bit.  Someone slipped these posies in ahead of the Bugs!

Here are the Bugs I promised you.  This time there were only these two.   First is the  White-shouldered Burrower Bug.  Then another Zelus Assassin Bug.  I still think it's likely Z. tetracanthus, because Z. luridus has red eyes.  At first I thought #3 was a fly, but it has a nice sharp ovipositor, like other Wasps.

Any more Bugs?  Not that I see so far.   But this could change - the Week is young!   Note:  ordinarily I would show pictures of Barklice (Psocids) here, but they are scarce these days.  This could change too.  So let's see what we have lately in the way of Flies.  Here is a pretty little Fly and its shadow sitting on a rock by the Pond.  Next seems to be a Fly with a string of black beads for an abdomen!  This is probably the fly of Subfamily Orthocladiinae we saw a few days ago - this one is dated April 16.  Last is a fly of funky wings! (seen on April 15).

Some more Flies.

This first weird Fly was identified by @zdanko as genus Docosia.   The two next pictures show you a humongous crane fly.   It was about 2 inches high without the legs.  I could see it from inside the kitchen.  Third is an enlargement.  Let's see what someone suggests for an ID.  I submitted it as Common Crane Fly but am still waiting for a better name for such a lovely monster.  Next week!

Three Spiders.  @huttonia called this first one Subfamily Lycosinae ;  next, the ID app suggested  Araneoid Spiders Superfamily Araneoidea. Third, @huttonia suggested  Zoosection Rta clade with a nice explanation of what that means.  Go to https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/207863907 for this nice explanation.  Thanks so much @huttonia!

Moving on to some other kinds of small creatures, often seen but hard to identify.   Here is  a pretty Pillbug.

The Frogs have not recovered from the long winter.  So far I haven't seen the six  or more large ones that were out there at the end of last Fall.   Or any of the very small or tiny ones.  But here are the ones I've seen so far.   First:  Tonguesy,  the big male whose tongue got wounded somehow but it doesn't seem to have prevented his long life.  Picture 2 shows three frogs - Tonguesy is the one on the bottom!  Third seems to be a different color from the others.  That might make four different ones for this year so far.  Of course their color seems to change with the light and maybe other factors.

Here are some Pond pictures.    Picture 1 shows the Water Lily Leaves - Last year these plants looked hopeful and then not.  About midsummer Mr. Raccoon began to "play with the Lily buds".  This means he would take bites out of the leaves, then bites out of the Lily buds, then bites out of the Lilies, just when they were beginning to bloom.   I tried Coyote Urine, noise from a radio, and an open can of tuna far away from the Lilies.  All to no avail.  I wonder if he or she will let any of the Flowers develop and bloom this year.  Picture 2 shows the lovely colors of the fishes among the ripples.

A couple of days ago, I was about to exult that Spring was here for good.  Then it dipped into the 30's overnight and all that exultation began to dip with the thermometer.  This afternoon I bravely tapped the Albion estimates for the next week.  The high numbers starting with this morning are Saturday 45. Sunday 53, Monday 61; Tuesday 57, Wednesday 53, Thursday 58: Friday 53, Saturday 67.Sunday 64.  Hey, that's not so bad!   So I'm going to go back and say Early Spring is Here, at least for the time being!  Who makes up these numbers, anyway?