Winter made a strong comeback last week with daytime temperatures barely reaching the 20s and nights near zero, so everything froze up again. The weather can often change dramatically and quickly in New England and this winter has certainly done its best to prove it; today we might see 70 degrees.
A tree got stuck on the Ashuelot River dam and the spray grew into long icicles.
The Canada geese drew me over to the river with their loud honking. Several of them seemed to be looking for something and honked back and forth as they swam and walked the shore. Could they be looking for nesting sites, I wonder? I’ve also seen many flocks flying overhead lately.
I must have spooked them because all of the sudden several of them flew up river, letting me get the first fuzzy shot of a bird in flight to ever appear on this blog.
Ice high on the branches of the bushes told the story of the drop in water level. I’d guess it must have been at least 5 feet from the surface of the water.
The yellow vernal witch hazel that grows in the park by the river was blooming heavily. What a change from the last time I was here when there wasn’t a flower to be seen on it.
If there is a color combination more pleasing than yellow and blue, I can’t think of what it would be. When I see this shade of yellow I think of daffodil, dandelion, and Forsythia blossoms.
Since Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) doesn’t bloom until mid-April I was surprised to see that its bud scales had opened to reveal a glimpse of its yellow buds. Cornelian cherry is in the dogwood family and is our earliest blooming member of that family, often blooming at just about the same time as forsythias do. The small yellow flowers will produce fruit that resembles a red olive and which will mature in the fall. It is very sour but high in vitamin C and has been used for at least 7000 years for both food and medicine. In northern Greece early Neolithic people left behind remains of meals that included Cornelian cherry, and the Persians and early Romans also knew it well.
Box shrubs (Buxus) were showing white flower buds in their leaf axils. They will open into small greenish yellow flowers soon. The flowers are very fragrant and attract a lot of bees. These small leaved, easy to trim shrubs are usually used ornamentally, often in hedges. Only the European and some Asian species are frost hardy and evergreen, so any examples seen here in New Hampshire are from those parts of the world. Box is another plant that has been used by man since ancient times; it was used for hedges in Egypt as early as 4000 BC. Some species of box can live as long as 600 years.
I made my way to a beaver pond to see if the beavers were awake yet, but the only sign of activity was a woodpecker drumming on a distant tree.
Skunks have come out of hibernation and chipmunks are once again scampering along the stone walls so I’m sure the beavers must be awake, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at their lodge. They might have abandoned this area.
We had some ferocious winds one day that blew to near 50 miles per hour but the great blue heron nest stayed in the dead tree in the beaver swamp. It looks like it might need some tidying up, but it held.
I found what was left of a wild turkey here last year and I wondered if a bobcat had gotten it. I didn’t see this hole under a tree then, but it looked to be the perfect place for a bobcat den. That could explain the lack of chipmunks in this place. Bobcats are doing well in New Hampshire and there is now a debate raging here about whether or not there should be a bobcat hunting season. They do a lot of good in the way of rodent population control and I say let them be. Though they can rarely reach 60 pounds in weight most aren’t a lot bigger than a house cat and are rarely seen. After having a few run ins with feral house cats over the years I know that I wouldn’t want to tangle with a bobcat, no matter what it weighed.
Sometimes if a stump or log has decayed enough tree seeds can grow on them. In this photo a golden birch (Betula alleghaniensis) grew on a log that has since mostly rotted away, leaving the birch to look as if it’s standing on stilts. From what I’ve seen any type of tree will do this.
The pale shoots of hellebore (Helleborus) were nestled under last season’s leaves. Once they grow up into the sun they’ll become deep green but for now they are blanched white. A common name for hellebore is Lenten rose because it blooms very early; often during lent. This year lent ends on March 24th, so this plant has some fast growing to do if it’s going to live up to the name.
The curvy, splotchy spathes of the skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) flowers have come up fully now but the foliage shoots are just sitting and waiting for the right time. Once they’ve started they will grow quickly and the leaves will hide what we see here.
The swamp where the skunk cabbages grow looked like it was frozen solid but with all the thin ice warnings this winter I didn’t want to try my luck. There’s nothing quite like a boot full of ice water.
The pussy willows have gotten bigger since the last time I saw them. I love their beautiful bright yellow flowers and I’m looking forward to seeing them again soon. They’re among the earliest to bloom.
Red maples (Acer rubrum) protect their buds with as many as four pairs of rounded, hairy edged bud scales. The scales are often plum purple and the bud inside tomato red. If you see more red than purple on the buds that’s a sign that they’ve began to swell. Red maple is one of the first of our native trees to blossom in spring and also one of the most beautiful, in my opinion. Each small bud holds as many as 6-8 red blossoms. Red maple trees can be strictly male or female, or can have both male and female blossoms on a single tree. They bloom before the leaves appear and large groves of them can color the landscape with a brilliant red haze.
The drop of maple sap on the end of the spile shows that the trees are coming out of dormancy and growing again. A spile is the metal or wooden peg which is hammered into the hole made in the tree and it directs the sap into the sap bucket that hangs from it. Flowing sap means that the tree is taking up water through its roots and that means that the ground has thawed, so it won’t be long now.
Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men. ~Chinese Proverb
Thanks for coming by.
It’s odd how some things there seem much later than here like the forsythia, which is often one of the first things here min late February early March, yet you have leaf buds on the trees and we don’t so far.
I think the Atlantic must keep you much warmer, but it is odd about your trees being so much later. I’ve noticed in Scotland they seem to be about 2 weeks ahead of us while in Suffolk some shrubs bloom a full month or more earlier than ours.
I was fascinated by the Birch on stilts. In a few years time all traces of the log will have disappeared and a few people might wonder how the birch got to look that way. The swirling ice patterns on your first image are beautiful and I love the shot of opening bud scales on the Cornelian Cherry.
Thank you Clare. Believe it or not I see quite a few trees that are stilted like that. You’re right though, once the stump or log is gone there’s no way to tell what happened unless you had seen it before.
We’ve had plenty of ice this winter and some of it has been beautiful, as long as I didn’t have to walk on it!
I’m looking forward to seeing that Cornelian cherry in bloom. Yours are very far ahead of ours.
Normally the cornus mas would be coming into flower now but this year it bloomed a good month early. We’ve had low temperatures for the last 10 days and things had slowed down a little but after another bright mild day again today spring has reappeared in all its glory.
I love to look at ice but I hate having to walk on it as I’m frightened of falling over and I wouldn’t dare walk on the ice of a pond! 😀
I’m always careful when I walk on ice, even with Yaktrax on. I stay off most ponds too, but the ice on ponds and lakes is usually snow covered and easy to walk on. Of course the question is always is it thick enough!
😀
Ah, witch hazels blooming, buds swelling … even with the occasional cold snap, winter is well and truly over.
It seems that way here. It could make another appearance, but I doubt that it would be anything too serious.
Very interesting post, as always, I enjoy the guided tour of your place in the world. Thank you.
You’re welcome, and thank you. Hopefully soon you’ll see some flowers occupying this space.
The skunk cabbage is fascinating. I hope the bobcats are left alone. It seems like every time an animal does well a few bloodthirsty humans think that’s a great opportunity to have some fun shooting at them.
Thank you Emily. Skunk cabbage is an unusual plant that we don’t really see much of. I know of only two or three places where it grows.
That’s just the argument that’s ongoing here. The bobcat isn’t a game animal so why shoot it? Those in favor say it’s for population control because the bobcat has no natural enemies, but I think nature should be in charge of that.
As Tom said, it’s great to see your wonderful photos and receive an education at the same time!
I too liked the first photo of the ice, it really catches the eye, but my favorites are the photos around the beaver lodge, that’s my kind of place. Beavers are mostly nocturnal, so you may not see signs of their activity during the middle of the day.
I agree with you, yellow flowers and blue sky does make a pleasing image, especially with a little red thrown in as well. That could be because we’re both looking forward to spring when we’ll see that combination much more often. 😉
Thanks Jerry! I like that beaver pond / swamp as well. I didn’t see any recently gnawed trees though, and that’s a good sign that they’ve moved on. Of course, they could be doing their gnawing on the other side, which I didn’t explore.
Yes, I’m really looking forward to seeing some flowers again! If we have more days like yesterday it won’t be long. It was 70 degrees here.
Great to see a flying bird among the other points of great interest in this post. Once again a visual delight and an education at the same time time. Thank you.
You’re welcome. I don’t usually try for birds but sometimes they get into the photo anyway, as the geese did.
What a great set of photographs. Love the one with the ice draping (like gauze or lace) off the tree branch/stick – a neat find.
Thank you Mary. That made me wonder how many times it had happened when I hadn’t seen it. Probably many!
Spring is such a time of discovery. Is it your favorite season, you discoverer-you?
Absolutely. It always has been!
Allen, I chuckled when I saw the title of today’s post, as it is supposed to reach almost 70 degrees today here is NH. What crazy weather this winter! The witch hazel photo is gorgeous. When I was out checking the sap containers this morning, a flock of Canadian geese flew overhead…a welcome sight and sound this time of year!
Thanks Paula. Yes, this blog is on a bit of a time delay this winter because it’s dark in the morning and then at night when I get home so I only have a chance to get photos on weekends. That means everything you see here actually happened last weekend. Hopefully now that the time is going to change things will get easier.
It sure was a beautiful day today! I noticed that a farm I drive by had taken all their sap buckets down and they were sitting on the ground beside the trees.
I’m seeing a lot of geese too. It’s nice to have them back!
I feel the same way about the first pic as Susan. Beautiful!
Thank you Jane. It’s just everywhere out there, as you know.
What, no bobcat photos? I can totally understand not wanting to mess with an animal like that. I’m not too surprised to learn that you have them there in New Hampshire, though I confess that it was a shock to me when someone posted some trailcam footage of one in my suburban county in Northern Virginia. Thanks for posting the shot of the sap bucket, Allen. Nothing says spring in New England to me more than the appearance of sap buckets on the maple trees (though I seem to recall that you posted some shots one year of more modern systems of collecting sap).
You’re welcome, and thank you Mike. No, I have a picture in my mind of a bobcat sitting lazily on a rock, letting me take as many photos of him as I want, but it never seems to happen.
Sap buckets do say New England, though I’ve heard of it even being collected in Indiana, of all places. These old style buckets are getting more difficult to find each year but I look for them because they’re so much more photogenic than a plastic 5 gallon pail with aquarium tubing coming out of it.
We have had a return to cold here too, but nowhere near as fierce as your part of the world Alan, so true though that nature is still a believer in Spring and buds are bursting and birds looking for nesting sites. Skunk Cabbage is an invasive alien here and has been a popular bog garden plant, although not currently banned there is advise not to plant it. I hope temperatures warm up soon for you.
Thank you Julie. I didn’t know that skunk cabbage had been imported there. That I fear, was a big mistake because the plant has such an extensive root system that it’s almost impossible to ever eradicate it once it becomes established. I wonder if we’ll ever learn our lesson about importing plants.
I’m glad you’re seeing signs of spring too. It was very cold here last week but this week we’re approaching summertime warmth. It’s getting harder to know what to wear!
With the roller coaster temperatures this year, many plants don’t seem sure what to do. Isn’t it amazing the heron nests can withstand so much wind?
It sure has been a strange winter and now spring seems to be just as confused, but I think the plants will be fine unless it gets down to below zero.
Yes, I was surprised to see that heron nest still in the tree. At work we’re still cleaning up fallen trees and limbs from that wind storm.
That first photograph took my breath away, what a work of art.
Thank you Susan. I found that work of art on a local stream. I liked the frozen ripples.