What happened to Spring!!!

After a couple of warm spring days the temperature started to drop yesterday. This morning I watched huge snowflakes crash on our deck as I drank my coffee. It continued to snow off and on all day, but the snow didn't stick and the temperature barely got out of the 30's.



It was just two days ago that I took this picture of a turtle crossing Joyce Road at Miner's Pond.

Home Sweet Home

This Tree Swallow has claimed a bird house near our cabin and was busy defending his real estate from other house hunters.

Turtles on the move (slowly)

The ice has just come off the ponds and the water is still cold, but I found this Eastern Painter Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) catching a few rays of sun near our cabin.



This little guy was still a bit cold and not moving very fast (even for a turtle).

Spring Turkeys

With the temperatures in the 60's and 70's for the past couple of the days, the neighborhood turkeys can be seen and heard as they play the "Dating Game".




This guy struts but hardly gets a second look from some hens.

"Froggie Went A Courtin'"

There's a Bob Dylan song called "Froggie Went A Courtin" but it's not a song from Bob Dylan we hear in the neighborhood, it's a chorus from the Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus).



With the ice just off the local ponds, the Wood Frogs are the first frogs to start their mating season.

Migrating Gulls

After a couple of warmer days this spring, ice on the local ponds has melted enough to allow waterfowl to find some open water. A flock of 30+ Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) made a stop-over on Miner's Pond during their migration to the Great Lakes from their winter grounds.

We've Been Traveling ...

During the cold weather of February we headed for a place with a warmer climate and took a trip to India and Nepal. I spent most of March sorting through the 4,000+ photos from the trip and created another web blog of our 15 day tour of India & Nepal.

Link to Tour of India & Nepal

Some of the places we visited. The Taj Mahal in Arga, India.



The Amber Fort in Jaipur, India.



The Boudhanath Stopa in Kathmandu, Nepal.

More signs of Spring ???

Mother Nature might be playing a belated April Fools joke, but it didn't look like spring today. Our crocus have backtracked from their colorful blooms of a couple of days ago and are now rethinking their early opening of blooms.

More signs of Spring

After a bitter cold February and a colder than normal March, the first couple days of April were in the upper 50's to 60's. The crocus have popped out of the ground and started adding some color to the neighborhood.

Another sign of spring

The calendar may say it's spring, but today's weather didn't feel like it. The temperature in this neighborhood didn't get out of the 30's today and a light snow is falling this evening, but I did find some daffodils popping up through the frozen ground.

A sign of spring

It's been very cold in the neighborhood this winter and with today's temperature reaching 50F, it was a content stream of geese heading north.

Ukraine (Україна)

I routinely check the demographics of the viewers of this blog and for the past several months I've noticed an increase in viewers from the Ukraine. A recent check of countries viewing this blog showed the views from the Ukraine out numbered the United States.

Views by Countries

Country	Views
Ukraine	38
United States	25
Indonesia	12
Germany	7
Australia	3
France	3
Canada	2
Italy	2
Belgium	1
Ireland	1

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Ladybug Invasion

During the cold days of winter, people don't normally see too many insects, but for the past few years our house has been the winter resort hangout for Ladybugs (Harmonia axyridis). Ladybugs, also known as the harlequin ladybird and the Asian Lady Beetle, invades homes in the fall in preparation for overwintering.

These beetles would normally hibernate for the winter inside of caves and rocky crevices, but have the tendency to overwinter inside homes, if given a choice.



On the sunny days of winter, these Ladybugs will pace back and forth across windows, "buzz bomb" me and dance across my computer desk.



Some close up views of the Asian Lady Beetle.

Icy Roads

The back-to-back nuisance snow storms (less than 4 inches) are taking their toll on the township roads and some vehicles. The overcast days and very cold nights have prevented the multiple dustings of snow from melting and caused the anti-skid spread by the township road crew to become encased in packed snow (ice).

Even though the township roads are coated with anti-skid, the crushed stones are embedded in the icy roads. Tracks in the ditch of Joyce Road are evidence of the low coefficient of friction between vehicle tires and township roads, along with the vectored forces of gravity and momentum (Newton's first and second laws of motion) acting on the vehicle's mass.



Most of the township's stockpile of anti-skid has been consumed and another 300 tons of (dry) crushed stone is on order.

Snow on the Teasel

Most of the spring and summer wildflowers have wilted and faded away, but the Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) can still make a presence in the depth of winter.The nectar rich flowers of the teasel have been replaced with a tough, thorny skeleton of the seed head.



The tough stem and seed head of the teasel isn't going to submit to a little snow.