April Snow

In the swamp, the skunk-cabbages are covered with snow, as are the seed leaves of the jewel impatiens and marsh-marigold.

On Tuesday it was 77 degrees and Wednesday it was 26 degrees -- and it has been snowing the last three days! We are going to be hiding Easter eggs in snow drifts on Sunday. And it's pretty much the end of the nonnative "spring flowers." I wonder what the violets are doing, under the snow.
The downy woodpecker has been at the feeder every day; there are coots on the pond and I hear the cardinal calling.

Violets! and something strange

Violets have suddenly emerged, overnight there are flowers in the woods. Blue violets, red violets, but mostly white violets.
Yesterday I saw a flock of Bufflehead on Fisher Lake; I haven't seen them on the pond this year, just Goldeneyes. A very active little downy woodpecker was hanging around all morning.

The sun was just coming up when I went out this morning with the dogs, I saw something strange over the dam but was able to grab a quick picture!

Silver Maple, Red Admiral, frogs and sunshine

Spring has arrived for the animals. I've seen several nuthatches and lots of juncos and a whole big flock of grackles has moved in across the street. Lots of robins. A pair of mallards were walking around, shopping for real estate, but the joggers running by out front were not to their liking. Coots, still a flock of coots on the pond, not as many as before. And Canada geese. No grebes.

The dogs herded the woodchuck out from under the front porch but, being herding dogs and not killers, they then didn't know what to do with him. So they herded him under a bush and kept him there until I pulled them away by their tails. He made a chattering noise I never heard before. He seems to have moved away, can't imagine why!

Frogs are in evidence, twittering from every bit of lowland. I don't hear any of the singers though, just the spring peepers. At the lake, before it was developed, we heard the singers first; their unearthly chorus was my first introduction to the strange and wonderful wildlife of Michigan. They don't seem to do well around people, and many Michiganders don't seem to know what I'm talking about. "You mean the peepers?" they say. No, the singing toad, Bufo americanus, with the long trill, sung in choruses of different, harmonious trills, rising and falling. Sometimes they sing in perfect intervals, thirds and fifths; sometimes they drone while one breaks away, higher, like a soloist. There is a recording here: www.naturesound.com/frogs/pages/amtoad.html . Multiply that times twenty or a hundred and you have something to take your breath away. (The same website also has a recording of the spring peeper's shrill whistle, also better in big groups but not the same as the singing.)

Flitting around the dried leaves is a single Red Admiral butterfly, too quick for my camera.

The warm weather has caused a surge of growth. Red leaf-buds are all over the silver maples, especially where they hang over the water. I see marsh-marigold leaves (no buds or flowers yet) in my swamp. The skunk-cabbages have doubled in size and the ones in the sunniest spots are growing leaves.
It's the annual race between the new sprouts and the flowering plants and the killing darkness of the nonnative Norweigian maples. When they leaf out -- before any native trees -- that's the end of the flowers and the end of the growing season for natives. I wish I could get rid of them, but they are too big.

Thunderstorms are predicted, and it's in the high 60s. I had the back door open last night and some big mosquitos came in.

Spring, or something like it

Yesterday was beautiful, sun and cold. Today, rain and about 40 degrees. Snow remains in trailing bits on the north side of trees, like a compass-point.
This morning a downy woodpecker and a nuthatch came to the suet feeders. At the tops of various trees I saw a cardinal, a dove, and a grackle, all with their own versions of music. Titmouses and juncos. Above the dam, a small bird I didn't recognize was swept along, apparently not understanding about the current. He dove but came up and struggled back around the bend, out of sight. Very small, mottled brown and white with a very large splash of white on the throat running up to the cheeks.

Then there was a lovely male goldeneye diving close to the top of the dam. The green of his head was quite visible.

The confab of coots continues; there are at least twelve of them. They stay well back from the dam. Their diving is very different from the seal-smooth diving of the goldeneyes. The coots seem to leap and pounce, making short, shallow dives. If only I had a telephoto lens!

The woodchuck appeared yesterday, ruffling around under the feeder on the lilac bushes. A muskrat was sitting on the remaining ice at the edge of the Pond. Some little tiny iris have appeared in full bloom in the garden. I wonder what they are? Not native, everything native still sleeps, except the skunkcabbages.

The river is very, very high. It is as high as I've ever seen it.

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Here's the snow picture that didn't upload; just a few days ago!

70 degrees, then snow

One coot on the pond; nuthatches at the feeder; and a woodpecker hammering out his love-song in the woods. My photo won't upload!

Snow, Rain, Sun (with coots)

A week ago I was driving along an almost impassable (due to heavy, blowing snow) M60 and now the temperature is in the 40s, rain one day and sun the next. Growing up in California I always thought talking about the weather to be the dreariest part of being old, but now in the midwest I can see why it's such a topic of conversation. Odd, unstable, and not very predictable.

A rim of snow remains along one side of the pond, but the ice is all gone. The large number of coots remain, leaving long silvery trails as the move across the water. Yesterday a cardinal was at the feeder and two young male robins were chasing each other around the house. A woodchuck appeared from somewhere and scuttled across the neighbor's yard and down over the bank to the river. And I'm pretty sure I saw the beaver swimming.

Here's a picture upriver. The floating island-like mats of vegetation have re-emerged from under the snow, and pairs of geese are checking them out for nest sites, like human couples looking at real estate.

Ruddy Ducks and an aggregation of coots

Lots of new snow a couple nights ago, three or four inches. Now, beautiful sunshine!

Out on Hoffman Pond I've been watching a small flock of Ruddy Ducks (in winter colors.) I've never seen them before. They seem to stay well hidden behind the trees that screen the house from the water. Yesterday there were maybe five of them; sleeping in the cold (it was cold again, about 8 degrees F in the morning.) They had their tails stiffly up and their bills tucked unter their wings; but they still appeared to be swimming, not floating. (Ruddy Duck, Oxyura jamaicensis.)

Another interesting thing last night was an aggregation of coots (Fulica americana) just up from the top of the Boys Dam; there were maybe fifteen of them, maybe more; they kept ducking underwater! Very quarrelsome with each other.

Also in the last few days another pair of mergansers passed through, also swimming quite close to the top of the dam. There is a lone male Goldeneye venturing close to the dam, and a large and noisy flicker came to the feeder; also a downy woodpecker. I'm pretty sure I saw a wren in the woods! The regulars -- juncos -- come to the feeder even when the weather is bad, like today. I haven't seen the nuthatch in a while. And this morning a Bluejay was sitting in the redbud tree (it has a feeder in it) making an odd chuckling noise.

Back to the Ruddy Duck -- Peterson says "Cannot walk on land." It's scientific name is Oxyura jamaicensis; the Red-tailed hawk is Buteo jamaicensis. What does Jamaica have to do with things that are red?

March 1: Mergansers and Thunderstorms

Thunder and lightning this am; the ice is being washed away. There's now lots of open water, and the geese are standing on the little floes around the edges of those "islands" of floating vegetation.

Four mergansers! Swimming close up to the top of the dam, one seeming to enjoy getting as close as possible. Three males and a female (Mergus merganser).

My favorite merganser sighting was at about this time of year in our cove off Lake Templene, when the ice was melting. Five females, working together like so many border-collies on sheep, slowly drove a school of fish up against the shore; when the fish were well trapped, it was a feeding frenzy! Happening right under my window!

I watch for them each year. They are not willing to appear anywhere that they sense people nearby; I doubt they are still seen on Lake Templene due to the sensless elimination of trees and jammed together development. (I cried when the tree that had reared generations of green herons was cut down -- and then left there; cut down apparently only out of a general dislike of trees, as nothing has been built anywhere near it.)

Anyway. Here on the river in the last week I have seen two downy woodpeckers, juncos, a nuthatch, and titmouses. Titmice? A housefinch was inspecting out porch, and Jim saw a robin by the St. Joseph in Mendon.

February 22nd -- Spiky Ice

Ice like tiny thorns all over everything (neither of these plants actually has thorns, it's all ice.)



I've never seen anything like it and neither has anyone here that I showed the picture to. But then, they didn't notice it this time, either.

Bird Count February 16

Minus seven degrees this am; first day of the birdcount. We have had a few weeks of changeable weather and broken pipes in the house. Cold and dark and snow and ice; no birds and not much of anything else! The patch of open water above the dam got smaller and smaller until finally only swans remained; I don't know if they were just too close for the other birds, but it seems they were too close to each other. One swan finally drove the other away -- they are called "mute" swans but the dispute was quite noisy, I could hear them over the sound of the falling water. The one paddled around below the dam for a while -- I was surprised that the bird is strong enough to swim against the current -- and left. The other one presided alone over it's patch of water, occasionally stretching out its neck and vocalizing. Finally it left too. Jim was driving down to Constantine and saw "forty or fifty" swans on the open St. Joseph below the dam there.

Two days ago a pair of swans reappeared, probably the same ones? No other water birds. An occasional titmouse (Parus bicolor), a white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) and oh, something I've never seen before, a brown creeper (Certhia familiaris) skittering up the trunk of one of the elms. The way they move is very different from the nuthatch even though they seem very similar; quicker, darting movement. The markings on its back were very pretty, a sharp clear pattern of brown and white that made me think of a newly-shed gopher snake.

Nothing out there for the bird count except the swans, who are asleep on the ice with their heads under their wings. Too cold! (9am)

Very cold

Minus nine degrees this morning. In just a few days, Hoffman Pond has completely iced over except for a patch of open water just above the Boys Dam. The swans have moved onto the ice at the edge of the open areas, but haven't been swimming much. A flock of doves sat around in the trees by the edge of the water for a while, and the kingfisher showed up although I didn't see him fishing. There is a busy grebe, that's about it.

Yesterday there was more open water and more birds. Six very very tiny diving ducks, which I think are female bufflehead, were fishing in the open water along with several coots and a grebe. No mallards. The swans were swimming around the open patch, normally the other birds avoid them but there is really no room.

I've been watching the birds hunting. The female bufflehead spend a while underwater, while the coot seems to leap up out of the water with a dive that's more like a pounce when he sees something edible. All of the birds have to dodge thin sheets of ice that rapidly sail toward the top of the dam.

I saw a coot with a fish too big to eat; the coot was smacking the fish on the surface of the water, trying to eat it, then smacking it again. Eventually he ate the head off, and finally the rest of the fish. Maybe it just tasted bad.

I looked up the word "bufflehead" and it seems to be "buffalo-head". Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) are closely related to the goldeneye ducks (Bucephala clangula) that I've seen a lot of this winter. I'm still surprised by how tiny the bufflehead are.

February 1, 2007

A very grey day. The swans, and a single, very busy coot are the only birds. It's about 20 degrees and due to get colder.
Yesterday there was a flock of "mystery ducks" feeding above the dam (divers.) Brown, white under tail, small white spot or line beneath the eye.
The skunkcabbages haven't changed much in size; mostly they are under the new snow.

Ice and Snow

The ice storm ice lasted for almost a week, and there was damage to the trees, especially the ones standing by themselves in people's yards. Trees in the woods survived fairly well. A clump of big somethings on the riverbank, Norway maple I think, toppled over into the river. Looking at the bottom of the torn up patch of bank I see almost no roots!


There haven't been that many birds, the pair of swans and the mallards remain and Monday there was a flock of geese for a few hours. Last week there was a group of male goldeneye passing through, diving and swimming fast.

The last few days I've only seen one male goldeneye, a grebe, and the eternal mallards. Oh! and a kingfisher! He was sitting on a piece of wood sticking up several feet out of the water, just above the dam.

This morning there was a pretty good fall of snow, several inches. The mallards were doing their dabbling below the dam, I haven't seen that before. They usually prefer the calm water of the pond.

After the snow stopped, a small flock of goldeneye, three males and three females, were feeding above the dam. The males remind me of the penguins we saw in Milford Sound, with their rapid dives and flashes of white.

They're back!

The skunk cabbage buds are coming up through the icy water.

Ice storm! Every branch and twig and blade of grass is encased in ice. I see that ice wraps around the tree-trunks, too. Many big branches down, especially on the big elms that are not doing so well anyway. A little snow fell, and now the woods have taken on an eerie look.

January 1, 2007

A grey morning; nothing stirring out on the pond. The temperature has been bobbing around fifty degrees all week, so no snow. Last night, rain.

About 1:00 five male goldeneyes showed up, diving frantically above Boys Dam for about fifteen minutes. They spent most of the time underwater, surfacing for a few seconds then diving again. Gradually they made their way up-river and out of sight.

At the same time the mallards emerged from wherever they had been hiding, and about an hour later the pair of swans showed up. The sun came out briefly, making the white of the swans even more brilliant against the grey water.