Just as soon as the spring peepers started singing the bullfrogs started to make an appearance.
I noticed several larger tadpoles already swimming in the neighbor's pond. They were probably bullfrog tadpoles. A post about raising tadpoles on the Missouri Department of Conservation's website stated "This bullfrog tadpole may take up to 14 months to mature into a frog. This tadpole is four inches long and may be as much as 10 months old."
"Of course there were some that met an unnatural demise as a snack for Kennedy the goat." Hyacinths, forsythia, daffodils and more appeared in all their brilliant glory. I went crazy photographing the colorful hues displayed by the flowers. A conversation between my mother and I ended in the same opinion. We both thought that in addition to things being a little ahead of schedule this was the most blossoms we had seen in spring. We were not the only ones with this observation. The US National Weather Service Pittsburgh PA had a post that stated "With Bradford Pear trees in full bloom, you may wonder if the recent warm March and early April has these peaking earlier than normal? .... most of the region is about a week ahead of schedule. Even farther ahead are locations adjacent to the Great Lakes." The post referred to a graphic found on the National Phenology Network's website. The status of spring map showed that areas in our region ranged from no difference to almost 20 days earlier than "normal" in the image for April 10. I gave into the pressure to garden early and bought some pansies for a couple of hanging baskets. I'm trying not to rush the season as previous springs have included a hard frost that tended to harm plants. |
A post on www.arborday.org said that serviceberry "Blooms in March and April (depending on location), with delicate white flowers arranged in clusters."
Last week I was thrilled to capture some shots of a few mourning cloak butterflies. Usually I only have one shot to get a photo of one a season. This year I saw three in one location at one time and they continued to visit that site throughout the week. A little research found that " The common name 'mourning cloak' refers to the wings resembling a traditional dark-colored cloak worn when one was in mourning, according to a post on statesymbolsusa.org. The mourning cloak is the state butterfly of Montana. The post went on to say that the butterflies "... lead a long life for butterfly, living as long as 10 months as adults." |
Will the warmth stay? Will there be a late frost? What about April showers? Only Mother Nature knows the answer to these questions and she seemed to be saying "No comment."
That's just the nature of things 'round here.