A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
April
Wild leeks are ready to eat / The monotonous cooing of mourning doves begins at the crack of dawn / The earliest mosquitoes have overwintered as adults and usually are not a problem / Robins seem happy to be back and may be noisy as they join forces at a loaded crabapple tree / Ponds are losing their ice covers / Cavity nesters at work: downy woodpecker nest cavity entrances are perfectly round. Those of hairy woodpeckers are larger and slightly elongate
White pine weevil adults are heading for the leaders of white pines / Average first date of tree swallow arrival / Hummingbirds have reached mid-New Jersey. They should arrive here by early May / The genus name for trailing arbutus, Epigaea, is from the Greek meaning “upon the ground,” which is where you will find this small, sweet scented wildflower / Female hazelnut flowers have extended their tiny purple tongues, and the male catkins are shedding pollen
April 22: peak of Lyrid meteor shower / Aspen leaves begin to unfurl. Bears may climb the trees to eat these early greens / There is more to trout lily, our earliest flowering lily, than meets the eye. The plants arise from corms 10 inches below ground / On rainy nights when the temperature is above 41˚F, spring peepers migrate to their breeding grounds. The males may stay for a month, but most females arrive, mate, lay eggs, and leave within a couple of days
Listen for the hermit thrush on the next warm evening. His song has been translated as oh holy holy, ah purity purity, eeh sweetly sweetly, with distinct pauses between the phrases / Blooming: squirrel corn, bloodroot, wild ginger, blue cohosh / Fox sparrows begin passing through – the big, handsome sparrows that kick up leaves / Gypsy moth eggs hatch when oak leaves begin to unfurl / American bitterns are back. The call of the male sounds like a pile driver
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These listing are from observations and reports in our home territory at about 1,000 feet in elevation in central Vermont and are approximate. Events may occur earlier or later, depending on you latitude, elevation - and the weather.
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© 2006 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
