Baby Geese

The baby geese should have strong legs. They make the 1/3 mile trip between our pond and Miner's pond once or twice a day.



When the geese are at our pond I can get within 10 feet of them. (It must be they want the corn I bring)

Cedar Apple Rust

At first glance it looked like little orange cheerleader pompoms hanging on a couple of my Eastern red cedar trees, but it turned out to be gelatinous masses of fungus. The fungus blooms from woody galls during periods of warm, wet spring conditions. This fungus on the cedar trees releases spores that are carried by the wind to infect apple trees. On the apple trees the spores produce bright yellow-orange leaf lesions which create spores that are carried to cedar trees to complete the cycle. Cedar apple rust cycle takes 24 months to complete and requires infection of two different hosts.



The “squid-like tentacles” of fungus blooming from a cedar gall.



A cedar gall a day after a fungus bloom.



An old, dried up cedar gall.

Flowering Crabapple Tree

The flowering crabapple trees in our yard are in bloom. We jokingly refer to these as Krabappel /krəˈbɑːpəl/ trees in memory of Bart Simpson's 4th grade teacher, Edna Krabappel. Check this out, there is a Krabappel/Crabapple connection; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Krabappel#Character.

Daffodis

Most spring flowers don't last forever and the blooming flowers of the daffodils will soon be replaced with seed heads.

I took some photos of a few of the different daffodils in our lawn before the flowers disappear.

Apple Blossoms

A wild apple tree near our cabin sprang into bloom today.



A few bees found these new blossoms.

Baby Mourning Doves

The Mourning Dove nesting in our cherry tree was off her nest so I took some pictures of the baby birds.

The Turkeys Are Winning

Another day of spring gobbler hunting and I still haven't (physically) harmed any turkeys. I was in a different location today since I had heard a gobbler near here yesterday afternoon. I had my decoys setup and was in my turkey blind before daylight, and started waiting. Around 8:00AM a thunderstorm rolled in, but I was nice and dry in the turkey blind. As the thunderstorm tapered off I saw movement through the brush in my food plot. It was my neighbor's cows, where I expected to see turkeys. A short time later the neighbor came by tracking down his cows.



I quit hunting early and headed home to find a hen and gobbler in my neighbor's field in front of our house. The gobbler was out of shotgun range and because of the turkeys location next to the road and houses this is a no hunting area.



As I watched the turkeys from my truck the hen walked toward me while it feed and the gobbler kept its distance. The hen got within 40 yard of me and then walked in front of the neighbor's house. The gobbler walked into the woods and started calling for the hen. I parked the truck and went into our house. Later the hen walked behind our house and 15 minutes later the gobbler walked by, still out of shotgun range. This is only the first week of turkey season and next week it will be legal to hunt turkeys all day and not have to quit at noon.

Wildflower - Virginia Bluebells

Not much activity turkey hunting this morning (only saw a woodchuck) so I stopped along Wysox Creek to take some pictures of wildflowers. The Virginia Bluebells (mertensia virginica) were blooming.



Large clumps of Virginia Bluebells have sprung up in the stubble from last year's Japanese Knotweed adding color to the area covered with dead stalks. I hadn't noticed all the wildflowers in this area before, but last year's flooding may have spread more seeds in the area. This area will soon be overtaken by this year's crop of Japanese Knotweed.

Turkey Hunting

It's the first week of the spring gobbler hunting season and I was out in the woods before daylight this morning looking for turkeys. After waiting almost 2 hours I found this pair of love birds approach.



I watched these birds for 20 minutes, waiting for the gobbler to get within shotgun range. Still too far away.



The gobbler finally dumped his girlfriend and made a mad dash for my decoys. I will spare the details, but no turkeys were harmed in this morning's hunt.

Baby Geese

The first batch of baby Canada Geese have made their appearance in the neighborhood.



The new baby geese (goslings) were hatch on the much larger neighboring pond, but this year, just like the past years, within a couple days of hatching the baby geese are marched to our smaller pond by our cabin.



This is a 1/3 of a mile hike for the little goslings.



A welcoming committee was waiting at our pond for the new arrivals.



Relaxing at our pond after a long walk.

Mourning Dove

The Mourning Dove nesting in our cherry tree and I are good friends now. I'm able to get within 5 feet of the bird.

Spring Turkey Hunt

The weather conditions for the opening day of the spring gobbler season were less than ideal. It rained over night and at daybreak there was strong wind. I saw this lone hen (not legal to shoot) but my neighbor had different luck hunting behind our barn. At 5:50AM he had 2 coyotes chase a buck by him, now there's 1 coyote less in the neighborhood. At 7:30AM the neighbor got a nice gobbler with a 9 inch beard.



After the early morning activity was over the temperature dropped and some wet snow squalls moved in. My turkey decoy and I moved out to hunt on a warmer day.

Wildflower - Yellow Trout Lily

The Yellow Trout Lily, also known as Yellow Dogtooth Lily, is another early blooming wildflower known as a spring ephemeral. It blooms, produces fruit, and dies back before the canopy trees leaf out. I found this clump growing next to our compost pile at the edge of the lawn.



The small, one inch wide blossom, attracts early spring insects.

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

While mowing the lawn today, I had this Black Swallowtail butterfly stop by and pose for me.

Nesting Mourning Dove

We have a Mourning Dove nesting in our weeping cherry tree.