Signs of spring

It’s that time of year again! It’s time to track all the changes that make winter a thing of the past and define this new season as SPRING.

I usually mark spring with notes about the first birds and flowers. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

3/17/2009- Paired mallards in Minnehaha Park (MP)
3/18/2009- Red winged blackbirds at Lebanon Hills Visitor Center (LHVC)
3/22/2009- Great Blue Heron and paired Canada geese at LHVC
3/25/2009- Phoebe at LHVC (for several years we’ve had a Phoebe nesting above the LHVC front doors!)
4/2/2009- Chorus frogs singing at LHVC
4/11/2009- Dutchman’s breeches (white flower) at Spring Lake Park Reserve (SLPR)4/12/2009- Skunk cabbage at MP (pictured above)
4/14/2009- Leopard frog singing at LHVC
4/17/2009- Brown headed cowbird at LHVC
4/18/2009- A flock of white pelicans migrating, Bloodroot and Hepatica at SLP. Bloodroot, Dutchman’s Breeches and Wild Ginger in MP

Skunk cabbage is cool because it is one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring. They start growing beneath the snow and will often melt a hole around their base as they push up and through. It is a very alien looking plant- and they get their smelly name from the odor that comes from crushing the stems.

PS. Sorry about going hyperlink happy. I love spring wildflowers so much! And I wanted to include links to pictures in case folks didn’t know what they looked like.