March 30, 2025

Lucky us!  Maybe it is almost Spring after all.  I hadn't understood until I got a message from Joey Grezkowiak  about the contributions of the various Crocuses on the Bees of our system.  Here are some of the Crocuses we have seen already. First a light purple, almost white one.  This kind of Crocus seems to attract a lot of Honeybees, compared with the other colors.  In my yard these light purple ones were gone in a day or two.  When the dark purple ones came the next day they didn't seem to attract so many Bees.  But these have more staying power - several days!

Here is a pretty, light purple one, followed by a striped two-tone one.  And another striped one.  

Here are a few other color-combos of Crocuses.  

We also have genuine Snow Crocuses.   Maybe these are the ones I'm thinking of.  When I first heard of Snow Crocuses, I thought they must be all White.  But they are yellow!   Here is something else new for this week.  This beautiful Blue Violet is blooming!  What a color!

What is the big deal about Crocuses?  For one thing, they attract Bees!  In picture 2, look at all those Bees!  What is the big deal about Bees?  For one very important thing, Bees are pollinators, and Pollinators are the creatures that keep the cycle of life going in a garden.  Think about that for a moment.  Let's see what else we can find in the way of common creatures in this Back Yard.  First, here's an American Winter Ant.  I wonder when we start seeing other Ants without such a direct tie to the season.  Next, one of the many Asian Lady Beetles.  Third is one of the Rove Beetles, those ones that have less covering on their abdomens.   This picture is from several weeks ago.

Here are more Flies.  They come in so many shapes and sizes you have to be very organized to get a good handle on which is which.  Some of these are identified below.  

Other familiar creatures:  you've seen this Brown Marmorated Stink Bug many times.  Same for this Eastern Boxelder Bug.  Third is one of the little Assassin Bugs (in a nymphal stage).  

The following are some Flies that I haven't even begun to identify..

Number one here is a Black Blow Fly.  The second is a Blue Blow Fly.  Third seems to be one of the Cluster Flies.

Let's go visit some of the the Creatures that we find the most interesting (maybe even the most likely to make friends with).  Those Green Frogs have become more and more inquisitive and spend more and more time out of the water.  This first little Green Frog (They are ALL members of the Green Frog species) seems to have spooked the second. In picture 2,  this good-sized Frog (I'm betting on its being a female because of the "snaggle-toothed" look to its mouth) has just climbed out of the water.

This Frog doesn't seem to be upset by the fish swimming so close at hand.  The second Frog has just swum across the pond.

Here are a couple of non-crocus flowers. First shows the purplish-blue Squills.  Then (below) the Snowdrops.

So you can see that the yard is progressing fast.  I have never seen so many tiny flowering plants appear so quickly!  In a couple of weeks all those fuzzy Poppy plants should have grown a couple of feet (a unit of measurement) and bloomed their friendly orange! I showed you a picture last week of what they looked like a couple of years ago!

Well, friends, this seems to be a place to invite you to get outdoors in your yard.  If you find something blooming or about to bloom, you might want to send it for possible inclusion in next week's Backyard Blog.  No doubt about it, the Spring is upon us.  Thanks for all your comments and especially thanks for your kind thoughts about how we can improve the shape of our environment.  Love, Martha

ps.  Here is a beautiful white Dove that visited a couple of days ago.  Doug White thought it might be saying, Peace to you All!