A Look at the Season's Main Events
By Virginia Barlow
April
Elm flowers are out, well before the leaves / Downy and hairy woodpeckers are excavating nest holes. It takes downies about 16 days to complete the job; 20 days for hairies / Painted turtles are among the earliest turtles to come out of hibernation. They have even been seen swimming below ice / The spirited song of the vesper sparrow, an early migrant, is often heard at dusk – hence its name / Raccoons are up and about and trying to wreck birdfeeders at night
The tiny, brilliantly purple female flowers of beaked hazelnut have opened, and the male catkins are shedding pollen / Mallards begin laying their 8 12 eggs. Nesting material and down are added as laying proceeds / Red foxes are giving birth to 3-7 pups. Until the pups open their eyes, the female leaves the den only for water and the male brings food / The vivid green in swamps and wet meadows is probably false hellebore / Phoebes may rehab last year’s nest
April 21-21: the Lyrid meteors may produce luminous trains of dust that can be seen for several seconds / Trout lilies are blooming. The pretty yellow flowers follow the sun during the day and close at night / Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody – the plaintive whistle of the white-throated sparrow is heard in brushy and open habitats / At this time of year, grouse eat the new leaves of aspen, birch, cherry, and apple trees, along with dandelions and clover
Northern leopard frogs come out of hibernation / Pear thrips adults emerge from the soil and fly to sugar maple buds, ready to pierce the buds as they begin to open / American bitterns are back. The call of the male sounds like a pile driver / Gypsy moth eggs hatch when oak leaves begin to unfurl / After spending the winter in the soil, white pine weevils are ascending to the terminal shoots of their host trees to feed and lay eggs / Trailing arbutus is flowering
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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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© 2008 by the author; this article may not be copied or reproduced without the author's consent.
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