The Daily Bucket is a place to catch your casual observations of the natural world and turn them into a valuable resource. Whether it's the first flowers of spring or that odd bug in your basement, don't be afraid to toss your thoughts into the bucket. Check here for a more complete description.
The daffodils are not blooming at my house. Crocuses are showing their heads and whispering "any day now," but not quite yet. There are no buds on the redbud tree.
Still, spring is here. How do I know? Because the turkey vultures have returned.
Of course, these friendly fellows are visible in my area throughout the winter. However, there is a large group that dissappears from our neck of the woods each fall, and returns in the spring. At sunrise on most mornings between now and autumn, I'll find some two dozen turkey vultures either clustered in a large dead birch tree down at a bend of the creek, or circling above, testing out the morning currents that rise off the edge of the nearby bluff. On some mornings, if you time it right, you can see all of these vultures, and then some, spiraling up in a kind of feathery morning tornado. And today was the first such day for this year. Welcome home, guys. I really did miss you.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
I got the new Flowerhouse brand pop up greenhouse installed on the giant chess board (yeah, that again) to get a head start on some veggies. Still some work to be done raising one of the walls in the garden and getting some new raised bed frames in place before planting can start in earnest, so this little greenhouse should be a proxy garden until then.
I have a new greenhouse on the way, a good one. More about that when it arrives.
Oh, and one of the red oaks near the garden shed has not survived the winter. The oaks aren't budding yet, but when a tree starts to shed all its branches, there's a prety good bet it's not coming back this year. A shame, as this tree is about 2' diameter and 70' tall. Getting that guy down without smashing something is going to be a chore.
Today's observations come from these locations
Share your own observations in comments, and I'll add a marker to the map. Please give a city and state (as close as you feel comfortable in providing). Green pins for observations mostly about plants, brown for animals, and blue for weather or other inorganic items. The letter at the center of each pin will be the first letter of the user who provides the data.