Spring love

Saturday was a gorgeous pre-spring day and it was a perfect day to look for frogs, salamanders, and their egg masses. I visited my local wetlands and started on the side of the road I'm most familiar with. The secret skunk cabbages are no longer secret. They are flowering and it's a sure sign that spring is here...early that is.

I headed to a pool where last year I found only one tiny wood frog tadpole. The pool was jumping with action and I eventually found some wood frog eggs. Side note - I originally was going to include two videos on this post but I know the system would explode with a bunch of pics and two videos...so I'll save those for the next post. The wood frog egg masses were so new they looked like a bunch of black pearls. They will gradually expand to be almost two times in size.

I headed across the street to the less explored area. I found a couple great pools that were bursting with action. More about that next time. I did find some spotted salamander egg masses.

I also found some of those packets of goodies (light colored specs in the photo) the boy salamanders leave behind for the girls. The picture didn't capture these packets very well, but I think the photo came out interesting from the reflection.

On my way back to the car, I spotted a dead hawk. For the first time, instead of walking away from a dead animal, I crepted closer. It was in pretty good condition considering the situation and I snapped a couple photos....which I won't share...even though they really aren't that gross. I wasn't sure exactly which type it was, but now I know for sure it's a red tailed hawk...the type you see along a highway sitting a tall tree. It's funny how things you normally view from afar look so different at close range. The poor hawk was lying on its back with the tell tale red tail shielded from view. They are very common and it's same type as the famous Pale Male in NYC.

If this is winter, I'd hate to see summer

Some of you wonder what I do during the winter. I do spend some time outside, but typically snow/ice cover and frozen ground makes it close to impossible to do work. Not this winter! This week has been crazy hot...and I do mean crazy. I've been trying to make the most of this weather by spending as much time outside as possible.

Even though it's nice and warm outside, there's still the winter challenge of vegetation identification. There's no leaves on the trees and shrubs. The herbs and grasses sometimes require some sort of CSI technology to identify them. Then there's the secret skunk cabbage. Skunk cabbage is a very wet plant so it's important to find it. Here's what it looks like in late winter...if you are lucky you can spot one.

Here's what it looks like in the summer. Big difference!

During my monday outing, I was getting frustated because of the secret skunk cabbage, being super overdressed for the warmth, and having to check the soils like a maniac before being able to hang one wetland boundary flag. So I needed some comic relief and here I am on top of a tree that I thought was like nature's chaise lounge. It was a tree that had a second life. It had fallen over, but it still was able to bend towards the sun and survive into a mature tree. Not soon after my comic relief I lost my sweater in the wetlands. Of course the sweater was a nice forest green and blended in well with the mossy ground. I eventually found it all sprawled out on the ground not that far from the chaise lounge.