Soggy Days.

3-28-21 SHORT HILLS: The last few days have been rainy except for yesterday when we had a visit from Anna and Gardner. The rain has been fine. I was worried about things getting too dry before the rain started. It has slowed progress on my projects list. Aside from the rain, things have stayed very mild, more like May than March.

We did a walk at Loantaka Park with Lynn and Bill during a lull in the rain a few days ago. On a different day, Judy and I went back to the Great Swamp Preserve. Almost all the snow is gone, frog songs have started, and birds are returning. We didn’t see anything unusual, but got a few pix. There was one day during all the inclement weather that was very windy and blew a new load of tree debris down on us. 

New blooms: andromeda, vinca minor, forsythia, spice bush. 

An Eastern Phoebe at the Great Swamp Preserve.

From the Preserve boardwalk--no leaves, but no snow either, frogs and turtles are at work.

A cluster of turtles, Painted Turtles specifically, warming up after a long winter's nap. Four are easy to see, but three more are back there.

If you've wondered where all the Canada geese come from, here's one on an early nest.

More crocus from our yard.

Andromeda is our earliest shrub, offering bunches of these little, white bells.

One thing that comes with lots of clouds--interesting sunsets.

Red and Orange.

3-23-21 SHORT HILLS: Another May-like day, we’re getting spoiled. I was at Home Depot yesterday to get fertilizer and saw several quince and bought one. I was looking for the camellias that they had a few weeks ago, but they’re all gone. 

So I threw out the first shrub to open the season. The quince went near one of the English hollies on the south border. It’s Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Orange Storm’, after that I did a bit of pruning. While on break, I take a lot of breaks, I saw a big bird land on top of the Dawn Redwood, which is 60-70 feet tall. She/he stayed in place long enough for me to get the cam and a few pix—red-tailed hawk. For a moment there were two on the tree top, but the other left.

Red-tailed Hawk from a lofty peak.

Looking the other way, all those balls on the tree are the cones, ready to drop.

Saying 'Good-Bye' and showing off the red tail. Sorry it's a bit fuzzy.

Spring is Here.

3-21-21 SHORT HILLS: It is spring here. Today and yesterday were warm, shirtsleeve days with lots of sun. We got back from VT in mid-afternoon to find the last of the snow piles down to a snowball sized piece. All the early shrubs and trees show swollen buds or small leaves just opening. The grass is greening up. Pollinators are flitting around. The birds are pairing up. Snowdrops are everywhere and lots of crocus and snowflakes are open. 

Today I raked up the debris in the driveway and on the terraces and paths around the house and the part of the lawn behind the house. I dumped several tarp-loads of leaves and sticks on the compost pile. I pulled a bunch of sticks out of the shrubs and broke them up. 

The many jobs to be done always seem overwhelming at this point, but in a few weeks everything will be done, including fertilizing, pruning, planting new stuff where needed. 

Now that everything is in business, I am terrified about new snow storm, but the 10 day forecast looks OK. 

New blooms: snowflake, elm, red maple. 

Snowflake is an obvious cousin of snowdrop, opening a few days later.

Crocus are such a bright surprise and welcome burst of color at this time.

More crocus.

Pussy willow buds.

Maizie often walks around with me, here lying in the pachysandra.

Sugar Season.

3-18-21 VERMONT: The Ides of March have come and gone. St Pat’s Day has past. It’s still winter here, but signs of spring are visible. We still have a ton of snow around the house, but the sunny spots are showing bare ground, and those areas are getting bigger. The piles under the eaves are huge. In past years they have lasted well into April.

At the base of the foundation on the south side of the house, the sun has warmed the bricks enough to melt the snow, and the snowdrops have responded with flowers just opening.

The sugar maples are festooned with metal buckets collecting the running sap, and Steve and Diana are boiling at the sugar shack.

The road varies between frozen and muddy depending on the ambient temp. Today it’s muddy, the temp is around forty and there’s a steady drizzle. 

New blooms: Snowdrops.

Snowdrops bloom almost as soon as they're free of the snow.

Along the road, the maple are giving it up. The roads are often lined with maples for convenient sap collection. There are probably two dozen buckets on these trees.

Here's a bucket from a few days ago when it was colder and the sap was frozen.

Sweetness happening. Smoke and steam are pouring out of the top of the shack.

Our replenished wood shed. Stacking by Sam and Lily. Thanks, Guys.

Mud Season.

3-14-21 VERMONT: Today it’s snowing and has been since sun rise. The sun is out so I’m calling this flurries, but we have about an inch so far. There’s still a lot of old snow looking dirty and grungy that was here when we arrived a few days ago. There’s about two feet around the house, but parts of the pasture are showing grass. Now it all looks pristine again. 

The dirt road is deeply rutted and gets soft and wet in the afternoon, but is frozen in the morning, the driveway is the same. We call this Mud Season. The buckets are on the sugar maples and the neighbors are boiling sap.

Next to the foundation on the south side of the house, there has been some melting, and snowdrop shoots are showing. The willow tree branches have that orange color they get in early spring, and maple tree buds are swelling. The plants know spring is out there somewhere, but the ponds are still frozen solid.

The nights are in the teens, temperature wise, but the afternoons are bright and warmish, as we approach the Vernal Equinox. 

The feeders have been mobbed by chickadees with a few nuthatches and titmice. A single red squirrel has been on the snow below the feeders eating the spilled seeds.

Lily and Sam have been here for several weeks, both schooling remotely. Today they go to visit Sam’s family in New Hampshire. Last night we all had a take-out feast from Taj-E-India thanks to a gift certificate from Janet and Bill. Thanks, Guys.

Red Squirrels are half the size of the Gray Squirrels and are being pushed out by the bigger cousins.

Blue skies when we arrived.

Today we have blue skies, flurries and new snow.

Sun and snow, but no Snowbow.

Second Flower.

3-11-21 SHORT HILLS: Today the first crocus opened up as well as a bunch more snowdrops. I continued to do spring clean up and took a load of juniper branches, broken by the storms, to the dump.

New blooms: crocus. 

Crocus, perhaps jealous of the attention focused on the snowdrops, have opened the first bunch.

Snowdrops will not relinquish the stage.

First Flower.

3-10-21 SHORT HILLS: The melting snow has uncovered Snowdrops doing their best to open on schedule. Today I found a small cluster in bloom. Around the neighborhood there are daffodil and crocus shoots where the snow has melted.

Today we walked on a different trail on at Loantaka Brook Reservation. It was almost snow and ice free, flat and almost warm today. The dogs were well-behaved as we crept through the few spots with unmelted snow.

I caught a Pileated Woodpecker working on an ash tree this afternoon. I have seen them before here, but they’re rarities. 

New blooms: snowdrops.

Pileated Woodpecker. Taken with a pocket cam. The bird was obliging enough to let me get the good cam for a better pic...

The problem was that she moved a little further areound the tree.

The Carolina Wren posed while on the suet feeder.

The Mourning Doves are very good at holding a pose.

This Downy Woodpecker also likes the suet.

Ta-Da--first flowers in bloom for 2021--Snowdrops.

Meanwhile, Back at the Feeders.

3-6-21 SHORT HILLS: It doesn’t feel like it with more than 50% snow cover and a cold wind blowing, but spring is on the way. Snowdrops are showing stalks and buds where the ground is open.

Migrating birds are returning to the feeders. Goldfinches showed up, still dressed in winter gray, a few weeks ago. Mourning Doves appeared about a week ago, Grackles a few days ago and Red-wing Blackbirds yesterday. Sunflower seed consumption is way up.

Mourning dove in the snow.

Grackles always look angry.

Red-wing Blackbirds seem to migrate with Grackles, but do not nest in the same areas.

Snowdrops are sometimes up in February.

More Water Birds.

 3-4-21 SHORT HILLS: There’s been some warmer weather and sun, so we’ve been walking. I did a bit of dead fall removal in the yard. 

We visited the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge a couple days ago, it’s only a few miles away, and near the neighborhood where I grew up. There is a raptor center there, but it’s closed now. 

We drove around and stopped at viewing sites. The whole area is flat and wet with standing water, mostly frozen, and still with a lot of snow cover. There were almost no bird activity in the trees. Some of the streams are open and flowing. We stopped at several places where the roads cross the streams. There were water birds at a number of the stops. I got several pix. 

We had a Photography catastrophe after the visit. I thought I had down-loaded the pix to the computer and deleted them from the camera, but I hadn’t down-loaded them. Disaster! We took the camera card to Millburn Camera and they were able to recover those images as well as hundreds of others, mostly pix from the India trip. Elation!

Today we stopped back at Loantaka Park to walk the dogs and check for any new birds. Tonight the winter chill returns.

A pair of Hooded Mergansers sharing a log.

I think she told him a joke.

A different Hooded Merganser male from aanother site.

At another stop we caught these two boys, Wood Ducks, unfortunately they were in the weeds and along way off so the pix aren't good.

One of the boardwalks through the swamp. It's still snow covered after the first few feet--next month.

Today at Loantaka, I caught this Bufflehead duck. He was under water most of the time, would pop-up for a few seconds and then dive again, making it hard to get a pic.

A dozen Mallards dropped in while we were there.

Turkey Vulture fly-by.