Wonders

“But let not care and humdrum deaden us to the wonders and the mysteries amid which we live, nor to the splendors and the glories. We need not translate ourselves in imagination to some other sphere or state of being to find the marvelous, the divine, the transcendent; we need not postpone our day of wonder and appreciation to some future time and condition.”

- John Burroughs

Erstwhile readers of my blog are probably wondering where I have been by now since it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything here. The answer is that I have been in the woods which are full of all sorts of wonders at this time of the year. I have been hanging out in the forest that you see in today’s photographs, some days sitting still in one place for many hours, and other days hiking to my favourite places. I have come across many interesting things and have been taking numerous photographs. Understand that it is hard to find myself sitting in front of my computer with all of the nature activity that is going on at the moment. It has also been time for the annual gardening rituals and I have been hard at work getting my modest little garden in. I find that while each year brings the familiar, each year is also different and there are always new wonders to appreciate and ponder over. I am excited about so many things at the moment that it is hard to know where to begin. The new eaglets, a rare turtle, a Blackburnian warbler, the nesting geese, the blooming shadbush … The list goes on and on. So bear with me, gentle reader, and I will try and share all of these wonders with you in the coming days.

Agog

Spring has sprung,
The grass has riz,
I wonder where the birdies is.

The little birds is on the wing,
Ain’t that absurd,
The little wing is on the bird!

- childhood poem

There is so much springtime activity going on, particularly with the birds, that I am completely agog. I am having a very hard time keeping up with all of the excitement. The biggest news in the province of New Brunswick at the moment is the fact that the Saint John River is reaching flood stage in our capital city, Fredericton, and down river from there in smaller farming communities. We had a lot of snow this past winter and the spring runoff has driven the river to near record flood levels, creating the worst flooding since 1973.

Hundreds of homes have been evacuated and hundreds more have at least flooded basements. Over forty streets in the capital are closed because they are under water. At the moment probably even the farmers are having a hard time seeing the bright side of things. There is at least one, though. Along the river there is land that floods almost every year that is used as farm land. Referred to locally as the ‘interval’, this land is preferred for growing crops because the annual flooding enriches the soil.

At the moment for me a big preoccupation is the birds. For the last few days my feeders have been overrun by two different large flocks of birds, one group getting ready to leave here, and the other group just arriving from down south. The former, Common Redpolls, and the latter, Chipping Sparrows are eating as much seed as I will put out. They are emptying a feeder in a day that would normally be filled once a week. The Common Redpolls are fattening up for their migration and the Chipping Sparrows are starved from theirs.

The usual collection of Black-capped Chickadees, Purple Finches, American Goldfinches, Downy Woodpeckers and Blue Jays are coming to visit every day. The male Purple Finches and American Goldfinches have just about finished moulting and are in their bright springtime plumage. There are Common Grackles about and this morning I saw Canada Geese on the wing. So far, as near as I can tell, there is no activity at the Bald Eagle’s nest although I did see a Bald Eagle cruising the marsh the other day. The warblers are beginning to arrive and soon springtime birding will be in its high season.

A real treat for me each year is the first sighting of the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). One came to visit my backyard the other day. This is a rather large member of the woodpecker family with very distinctive markings. John Burroughs referred to this bird as the ‘high hole’, which I presume has to do with where they make their nest. Usually I spot the flickers in Victoria Park which is next door to our house and features a bandshell, flower gardens, fountain, the city's cenotaph and some very nice trees.

This is also high season for what I refer to as the ‘small flower bulbs’. Today’s flower photograph is of Glory Of The Snow (Chionodoxa luciliae) which is one of the early blooming spring bulbs. Daffodils and tulips are also beginning to bloom and soon there will be a riot of colour everywhere. So spring will soon be in full swing. The woodland flowers will begin to bloom in the next few weeks. I can hardly stand the excitement!

Willow

The spring-like weather has taken a decided step backwards today with rain and the temperature around 2°c. April showers bring May flowers. The rain is supposed to turn to snow later this afternoon. This will melt right into the ground and may turn out to be what is known as “the farmer’s snow”. This is the last snow you get in the spring which is also known as “poor man’s fertilizer”.

I took this photograph a few days ago of pussy willows just beginning to blossom. Here is one of the most familiar early signs of spring. Bunches of these now surface at our farmer’s market and in the hands of little children trundling off to school. Pussy willows are really the flowers of the shrub American Pussy Willow (Salix discolour) which is native to North America.

Actually, I need to be less specific about this because here in New Brunswick there are about 30 different species of Willow (Salix spp.) which are either native or introduced from Eurasia. Willows like water and will mostly be found in wet places – along the banks of streams or creeks for instance.

The fuzzy, soft gray catkins will blossom over the next few weeks with male and female flowers on separate trees. I once saw a time-lapse video of the pussy willows blooming and it could best be summed up in one word – SPROING!

Willows are one of those plants that have proven to be important to humankind for its medicinal properties. Native North Americans used willow bark for its pain relieving properties for hundreds of years. Willows contain salicin. In the late 1800’s the German company Bayer invented acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) which has been sold ever since as Aspirin.

Blush

“What a poem is this of spring, so often repeated!” – Henry David Thoreau

We have had several very nice early spring days by now with temperatures in the mid-teens. This is what Canadian meteorologists refer to as double digit weather. With the warming weather comes the expectation of the first real colour of the year, especially after the months of dull grays and browns of winter. How we long for that fresh, vibrant new green of springtime!

But just a minute, now. We speak of the first blush of spring, and indeed, the very first colours of this new season are red, not green. The very first colour that one sees is the bright red of the shrub Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera). This plant has a bushy appearance and its lime green bark of summer gives way to a wine red colour in winter. This colour becomes an even brighter red at this time of the year just before the buds swell and the leaves appear.

The real first blush of spring is a very subtle thing. There will come a day when you look over the woods to see a delicate reddish hue to everything – the first blush. It will only last for a very few days and is a subtle thing so you must be on the lookout for it. It is made up of millions of buds coming out on the trees, blooming into that first bright inflorescence of spring. I find it very difficult to catch the overall effect in a photograph, but close-up images can be spectacular. Here are the very flowers of the trees in all their glory.

Blushes in nature, just like the human variety, are very fleeting. The blush on these maple keys only lasted a few hours. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this picture. This is one of my favourite photographs and I find the colours in it to be remarkable. These are the actual un-retouched colours. Just a personal note here. I don’t use Photoshop to enhance my photographs. Ever. I am old school and believe that a photographer should capture the image in the camera, not create an image on the computer. I think the former is photography and the latter is art, or worse, something else altogether.

Like many things in nature, the first blush is fleeting. You either are watching and waiting for it, or have the good fortune to stumble upon it haphazardly, or you miss it altogether. I try to spend as much time in the woods as I can so that I don’t miss anything. Where I live there are 125 frost free days so a lot happens in a very short period of time. Some of the most exciting days are just ahead …

Update

Spring is busting out all over in so many ways that it is hard to keep up with it. So I thought that I would give you an update today on what is happening here. Our weather has been splendid with four straight days of sun and a temperature of 19°c expected today. It has been hard to stay indoors and blog. The crocuses are now blooming everywhere. Daffodils, tulips and tiger lilies are just beginning to poke their heads out of the ground.

The birds have noticed the change of seasons. Yesterday there was a flock of maybe fifty cheerful little redpolls in my backyard. They are massing for the journey north to their summering grounds. You can read more about the redpolls in my previous post here. The purple finches and goldfinches are spending less time at the bird feeders. Soon the goldfinches will molt, with the males putting on their bright yellow coats for the summer.

There are flocks of grackles about with their noisy, squeaky clothesline pulley voices calling from all directions. The flocks of robins are beginning to break up with individual males staking out their territories by filling the air with their song. The snow has pretty much all melted and the robins spend time scouring the lawns for big, juicy worms.

Everywhere you can see nest building activity. There are quite a few crows in my neighbourhood and there are at least two nests being built within sight of my backyard. I’ve seen pigeons, mourning doves and starlings all gathering nesting material and then flying off on their urgent mission. The woodpeckers have begun drumming on the trees again.

The ice is lifting from the ponds and marshes and there are waterfowl everywhere. The Canada geese and the ducks are looking for just the right place to situate their nest and raise the first broods of the year. There is a splendid marsh within walking distance where hundreds of pairs of waterfowl will make their home for the season.

Since we had a lot of snow this past winter the spring runoff has swollen the brooks and streams to their limits. Soon some of us will hike out to our favourite streamside places and pick fiddleheads to have with a meal of fresh salmon and new potatoes. This is the quintessential springtime New Brunswick meal.

Indoors us gardeners are busy filling every bright nook and cranny with peat pots seeded with our chosen hopes for the coming gardening season. I have windflowers and shamrocks coming up at the moment. My Hoya plant is in full bloom and at night the sweet scent fills the entire house with its perfume. Outdoors the buds on the trees are just beginning to swell and soon we will have that first blush of spring …

Spring

"All beginnings in nature afford us a peculiar pleasure. The early spring with its hints and dim prophecies, the first earth odors, the first robin or song sparrow, the first furrow, the first tender skies, the first rainbow, the first wild flower, the dropping bud scales, the awakening voices in the marshes, - all these things touch us and move us in a way that later developments in the season do not." - John Burroughs

Today is my birthday! I was born on the first day of spring in 1949. The equinox has shifted over the years so now I have to say that I was born on the first full day of spring, which is of course what today is. (I wonder if I should consider the fact that I have been alive long enough for the equinoxes to have shifted in time?) Where I grew up the first sign of spring in the woods would be the skunk cabbage peeking up from the ground. How I looked for those very first signs of green with great anticipation. Here in New Brunswick the first signs of spring are few and far between as of yet, but the very first pussy willows are out and so are these birch catkins. In a few weeks you will be able to ping them with your finger, releasing a cloud of pollen into the air.

The lovely April (what an appropriate name for the time of year) of Nature At My Doorstep has tagged me with the Six Word Memoir meme. I think I should like my memoir to be:

I photographed the world around me.

I'm afraid that since I have only been blogging for such a very short time, I really don't know five people to tag. However, I would like to tag the irascible Ms. Mac and the incorrigible Antipo of Naughty Letter To Ms. Mac fame.

I invite all who read this post to participate as well. The rules are simple:

1. Write a six word memoir and post it on your blog.
2. Add a picture if you wish.
3. Link to the person who tagged you.
4. Tag 4 or 5 others, with links, to keep it going.
5. Leave a comment for the ones you tag with an invitation to play.
6. And link to the original post about the Six Word Memoir meme.

Returned

Like many Canadians, I have returned from my winter break. The month of February marks for me the lowest point of the year. This is the time that I want to cocoon the most, curling up by the fire with a good book. It is the season of the winter blahs. The first two weeks of February are generally the coldest we have. My almanac suggests that winter’s back is broken by mid-month, but here in Canada it is generally another six weeks before one is sure that we are on the downside of winter.

There are signs of the coming season to be sure. The other day came the first time this year that you could smell spring in the air. Many people that I spoke with that day noticed it. On a walk in the woods last week I saw the very first pussy willows of the year happily sunning themselves in the now strengthening winter sun. And there are catkins hanging from the birches just waiting for the spring warmth that will bring forth their pollen in the air. Soon, like me, spring will return.

Things are looking up …