May Day is midway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice / Wild ginger is flowering. Small pollinating gnats and flies warm themselves within the ground-hugging flower / Forty to 250 eggs are being laid singly by each female eastern newt on submerged vegetation / Look for the backs of suckers as they ascend small, stony streams to spawn / Hills are turning a startling new color: light pea green, as almost all the trees except ash unfurl their buds

The new shoots of Japanese knotweed are edible when less than 8 inches tall, perhaps the best use for this invasive, non-native plant / Yellow warblers are here: look for an all-yellow body, with wing feathers edged in yellow, singing sweet sweet sweet shredded wheat / Wet weather over the next month will increase the severity of the inevitable summer mosquito problem / Queen bumblebees are laying their first clutch of eggs, often in abandoned mouse nests

“Swallows fly high, clear blue skies. Swallows fly low, prepare for a blow” / Clintonia, a lovely yellow lily of cool, acidic soils, is beginning to bloom. It’s also called bluebead lily, for its fruits / Blackfly larvae that haven’t been eaten by other insect larvae or trout are emerging as adults / Weety weety weet chew is the signature tune of the magnolia warbler / Male hummingbirds arrive, usually about a week before the females / The rhubarb is ready

While she is gathering nesting material, the female scarlet tanager answers the male with a softer and less harsh version of his song / Fawns are born. They each have 250-350 camouflaging / Green frogs breed over many weeks, from now till August. Some females will lay two clusters of eggs / Lilacs in full flower / Beavers shift their diet to herbaceous plants like cattails, pickerel weed, and water lilies. They will go back to subsisting on bark next winter