This is the season when every turn in the road produces an “Oh!” and every glance at the garden elicits an “Ah!”—and for the photographer, another click.
We have added a few photo galleries to our website. You can view them from the links below or from the menu at the top of the web page.
My rain gage says we have had more than five inches this weekend. So as you dry out, enjoy some flowers and frogs and other April delights from earlier in the week. And keep your eyes open—there is a beautiful, but unwelcome Tennessee native in the lot.
In the photo, it’s a rainy Monday, and Mona longs to get outside. We did manage a brief foray into the front yard before the rain moved in, but she missed her long walk Sunday, and now she’s shut out by a mini-deluge. This image of her profile at the window is a familiar one, watching for perfidious squirrels and chipmunks and cats. What’s missing is Nancy at her frog-watching post (see tripod and binoculars at left). She’s behind the lens on this shot and cannot be in two places at once.
Competing male green frogs, Verdi (left) and Xeno (Right).
Xeno and Verdiare back. Nancy recognizes markings from last year. She also notes deepening of some markings as they move into their reproductive phases.
Xeno in Winter and Spring
Xeno’s still the bold one. As Nancy was changing the pond filter on Saturday, hands underwater, he pushed off shore heading towards her. Pausing right by her hand, he lingered long enough for her to reach up and touch his toes a few moments. Then he swam off to the other side.
The upland chorus frogs have bred and now are quiet. Some other species (so far not identified) were courting a few days ago and Nancy caught a pair in amplexus.
Unidentified Toads or Treefrogs in Amplexus
The green frogs (Xeno and Verdi and friends) are also into their season. We have heard Xeno’s familiar song.
The plant life around the pond is flowering also—figuratively in the case of the bellwort and Solomon’s seal and bleeding heart and just-emerging ferns, literally for the bluet and foam flower and wild geranium and coral bell and twin-leaf.
BluetsWild Geranium
It looks to be a good year for trillium, which are popping up in clusters, both in our garden and in the woods out back.
Sessile Trillium Luteum
The Lenten rose are done with bloom. While the seed heads are still pretty, they will soon spread seeds by the hundreds if I do not quickly remove them.
Bee in Lenten Rose
Bluebirds are nesting, and some chickadees were checking out another bird box last week.
Chipmunk Gets a Chewing Out
In this photo from a few days ago, Mona is chewing at the hollow log. Apparently she saw a chipmunk go inside. She’s usually ready to come back inside the minute her people disappear, but she stayed at this task for half an hour before giving up.
P.S.—Mona made up for lost walks today (Tuesday). We did our longest loop, four miles.
