JB | Native Plant Gardener (WI)

I went on a short hike today too and it was cold, windy, and misting. 🥶

The early morning sun rising between the pines.

Cooper's hawk overlooking a prairie restoration on the edge of a woods.

A small woodland stream.

Common Goldeneye in a large pond.

A few more photos from yesterday morning's sunrise hike.

#hiking #nature #Wisconsin #birds

These bullfrogs overwintered in my pond. That makes four frogs seen so far this year in my pond. I'm not sure how many overwintered here in total.

#frogs #wildlife #Wisconsin

I'm trying to root some elderberry cuttings this year. I had some good luck with dogwood last year so I'm hoping for the best.

Spiders are already trying to catch food in my native garden.

#spider #nativegarden #wisconsin

Thanks for the flyovers, T-6! I'll never get tired of that sound.

#aircraft #planes #aviation #Wisconsin

A couple of green frogs that overwintered in my garden pond have come up to enjoy the warm weather.

#Frogs #wildlife #Wisconsin

Even the boreal chorus frogs are calling! 🐸

Eastern comma butterfly resting on a leaf on the ground.

First butterfly of the year! Maybe the earliest I've ever seen one, too! 68°F currently.

Eastern comma.

#Butterfly #insects #pollinators #Wisconsin

And I took a couple short video clips of the ducks today, too.

#birds #ducks #wisconsin

Common goldeneyes and ring-necked ducks

Eastern phoebe

Song sparrow

Bald eagle

Today is the kind of day I wait for all winter. So many birds seen on today's hike! Several duck species, thrushes, tree sparrows, song sparrows, eastern phoebes, and a bald eagle. And the usual cooper's hawks, blue jays, red-bellied woodpeckers, etc.

#birds #nature #wildlife #Wisconsin

I love that prairie smoke wastes no time.

#nativeplants #nativegarden #Wisconsin

That's usually how I find them too. Looking at something else and then realizing they're right there. I just found a few old photos I took of them.

Amazing!!

Every now and then I'll find a toad half buried and it's always fun to see. I can't imagine how often I walk past them without knowing.

Toad borrowed into the soil of prairie garden

Toad borrowed into the soil of prairie garden

Lil dude chilling in our prairie garden.

I wish we'd spend a billion a day on habitat restoration. Imagine what we'd accomplish in just one month.

I love a mid-July garden. But ideally with May-like weather.

Hot Wheels makes a car based on the old Fisher Price phone. 😆

So, I bought it and I plan on turning this into an ornament for my mini Christmas tree.

A couple leftover Flight For Life shots from last summer.

#aviation #aircraft #helicopter #Wisconsin

I guess my concern in this case is that it's basically what I already own but a year newer - and what I own is nearing the end of its life. Hopefully this one will have been used less than mine and still has some years left in it.

I just ordered a used 14-year old camera. Wish me luck. 😅

DST returns this weekend and evening hikes are so back!

A nest box with my neighbor's small woodland in the background.

My nest boxes are all cleaned out on this dreary early-spring day. Overcast skies and fog in the air.

Common ninebark seeds have sprouted!

Also, where the hell am I going to put ninebark?

#nativeplants #nativegardening

Five Canada geese in a pond.

Five Canada geese in the pond.

#birds #nature #Wisconsin #wildlife

Just a goose being a goose.

#birds #Wisconsin #wildlife

a close-up look at a small compound umbel of white flowers, around ten or so flowers in total with three or four flowers per umbellet. each flower has five white petals, a split white style, and five white stamens capped with bright red anthers which turn black with time. the flowers are at the top of a reddish stalk growing up from brown fallen tree leaves and around a fallen tree branch.

green carroty-looking leaves poke up through brown fallen tree leaves and twigs, alongside tall reddish flower stalks bearing at their top umbels of small white flowers. the stalks of the leaf stems are hairy, while the flower stalks are smooth.

a broader look at the scene, a creek bottomland area littered with dry, brown tree leaves and abundant sticks & branches. small green shoots and leaves are pushing up from underneath the tree leaves; predominant here are the carrot-like ternate leaves of harbingers-of-spring, accompanied by their relatively tall, reddish flower stalks. small white flowers are borne in compound umbels at the top of the stalks.

🌼 HARBINGER OF SPRING 🌿
Erigenia bulbosa

winters over for real this time 😎

#nativeplants #ecoregion71

Smoke rises from fire passing under a large bur oak matriarch (5 feet in diameter)

A burn crew member stands next to a drip torch observing the fire line and the burn-out around a dead bur oak snag in the distance.

Backing/flanking fire along the fire line with a crew member standing back and monitoring the fire break and grassy fuels on the far side of the break.

Flanking and backing fire burning into prairie with old farm structures in the background.

71% RH. Who cares. A little March sun and dry antecedent conditions, and praires will burn just fine. RH was actually 82% a hour before ignition!

The pond is thawing.