Daffodils

Some of the early daffodils around our lawn adding color to a dreary spring day.

Mourning Dove Nest

As winter fades into spring, the neighborhood birds are busy nesting. I found this Mourning Dove sitting on its nest in a weeping cherry tree at the edge of our lawn. This may be the same Mourning Dove that nested here last year.



The dove wasn't very happy with my interest in its nest and flew to a nearby tree to watch me photograph the eggs. The dove soon returned to the nest.

Grafting Fruit Trees

It was another nice day to practice social distancing by working outdoors on grafting fruit trees. I had great success grafting some pear trees two years ago and it's time to prune some old tree growth away from the grafted growth. A couple of my successful two year old grafts.



A new graft on a "sucker" branch.



I cut off this 1.5 inch branch from a wild pear tree and grafted in some cuttings from a pear tree in the orchard.



This wild pear tree had branches going all directions so I grafted in some cuttings from the orchard. If the new grafts are successful I will prune out more of the old branches in a couple of years.

Frog Eggs

It was another cold/damp/dreary day of stay at home social distancing, so I decided to take my camera for a walk. Not much activity with the birds and animals as I walked around our barn property. I did find a migrating woodcock, but it decided to socially distance itself from me before I could get a photo.

As a result of the recent Wood Frog spring break partying, I did find some frog eggs in a couple of water holes.



At first I only found one cluster of frog eggs in a spring behind our barn, but a closer look in some cattails revealed the main party location.

Return of Winter

As the saying goes, "all good things come to an end", and that's what happened with our weather. Yesterday's warm/sunny weather changed to rain and snow overnight. The snow did make it easier to spot this rabbit hiding in the brush.



I haven't seen too many rabbits in this area due to an increase in coyote and fox populations.

Early Spring Wildflower - Coltsfoot

We were out driving around the back roads in our area today and found a couple of small patches of the wildflower Coltsfoot growing along the edge of the road.



Coltsfoot, a member of the daisy family Asteraceae, is one of the first wildflowers to appear in our area.

Party Time for Frogs

Spring is here and the Wood Frogs in our neighborhood have decided to have a spring break party. The frogs have started to gather at a small vernal pond on our property and like college kids on spring break, they are noisy.



The mild winter and recent warm weather has brought the frogs out early this year. Wood frogs can be frozen solid over winter and as soon as their blood thaws out they are ready to party (mate).



Wood frogs vary in color from dark olive brown to light tan.



Lookin' for love in all the wrong places ... "Bartender, another shot of tequila. Maybe I should try the other side of the pond."

Bees are Buzzing

It was a nice day for a walk in the woods and even though it's still winter I found some wild honey bees out looking for food.

Sandhill Cranes

We made a recent visit to the Iowa/Nebraska area for our grandson's 3rd birthday and decided to do some bird watching with the kids. Our first stop was in the Hastings, Iowa area, but we were too late for the Snow Goose migration, so we headed west to the Hastings, Nebraska area to check on the Sandhill Crane migration. Along the Platte River, near Kearney, Nebraska we started seeing Sandhill Cranes in the fields.



As the day progressed into early evening we started to see more Sandhill Cranes fly in and land.



Soon the sky was full of Sandhill Cranes coming to roost for the night.



Hundreds and thousands of Sandhill Cranes landed in the fields around us. Not a bad day of bird watching.

Another Raccoon Removed

It's been a slow process removing unwanted animals from a turkey nesting. I've got several game camera photos of raccoons, opossums, skunks and porcupines in this area avoiding the trap. This raccoon wasn't lucky this time.



Raccoons are very intelligent and this game camera photo shows the raccoon's arm outside the trap as it attempts a "Harry Houdini" escape.



This was an older, mean spirited raccoon that snapped and growled at me while it was in the trap. My opinion of this raccoon didn't improve when it pissed on the tailgate of my truck.

Emerald Ash Borer

For the past couple of weeks I've been converting the dead ash trees around our yard into firewood. The invasive Emerald Ash Borer has decimated the ash trees in our neighborhood and these standing dead trees are starting to become a safety hazard.



The Emerald Ash Borer larvae are less than 1 inch long, but big enough to kill a mature tree.



The trees are killed by the Emerald Ash Borer larvae feeding on the inner bark layer (phloem) until it girdles the tree. Feeding tunnels in the ash bark created by the Emerald Ash Borer larvae.