Sunday 21 April 2019

Early Spring Botany

While many other birders are busy with their eyes to the skies for birds, I have been spending the last few weeks crouched on the ground looking at some plants. Wildflowers have started within the last week or so to come up, including my favourite April flower, Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).



This one looked a tad odd

Trout-lilies (Erythronium spp.) have started to peak through the forest floor. It will be difficult to discern species until they flower.


Trilliums have also started to come up.


Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) just started to come up in the last couple days.


A few other interesting miscellaneous finds.

Eastern Leatherwood (Dicra palustris)

Running Strawberry Bush (Euonymus obovatus)

Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

Salix spp.


Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)

Early Meadow-rue (Thalictrum dioicum)

I have still been going strong with mosses as well. Here are a couple of my favourites.

Redshank (Ceratodon purpureus)

Pincushion Moss (Leucobryum glaucum)

And of course, a couple other life forms to complete the post.

Notonecta undulata

Fathead Minnows


Red Admiral

Orange Legged Furrow Bee

Sylvanelater cylindriformis


I am looking forward to the month ahead. It will be difficult to find a balance between birds and other nature things ;-p

1 comment:

  1. In my area, the snow is almost gone in the city but still some I think up the escarpment (North Bay area). Longest winter ever (North Bay Nordic had ski-able snow for more than four months!) So the only wildflower I have seen so far is a maple flower just out a few milimetres out of the bud. A few Mourning Cloaks and Compton Tortoiseshells are the only interesting insects I have seen so far. The birds are back though and last Saturday I managed with my family plus inlaws to get six predatory bird species in a single outing. We zigzagged around the Sturgeon Falls araa.

    ReplyDelete