Catching Up - The Brief, Strange Spring of 2018

It's always hard to predict when spring will show up in this part of the country. After a cold and rainy start, followed by a three day blizzard in mid-April, it finally made a brief but glorious appearance in June. The poor plants in my garden had quite a rocky start but eventually they persevered. In the end there were a few less than spectacular performers but lots of overachievers, too!  

The ants didn't waste any time, they showed up for work on the peony blooms right away.

This was a good year for our crabapple. The pink side usually blooms first and most of the time it's petals are gone before the flowers on the white side begin to open. It's nice when they coordinate!

To be honest, it was probably the one day of mid 90° F. temps that got the white buds to open sooner. Later, another bout of unseasonably hot and rainy weather brought out a bumper crop of mosquitoes!

These super short daffodils were one of the more freakish surprises of the season.

Not all of the daffodils came up short - could that be where the saying comes from? Anyway, about three quarters of them didn't come up at all so I'll probably plant some new ones this fall.

Then there was this pile of snow in the parking lot by one of the garden centers. It was one of several  and as I wheeled my cart full of new plants past it, I had some serious doubts about their chances of surviving. The snow melted right before Mother's Day and by the end of the month I had finally convinced myself it would be okay to plant the flowers. They are currently doing quite well.

On the overachievers list are these lilacs that HM and I planted five years ago. This spring they finally put out some spectacular blooms with a great fragrance! I was about to give up on that ever happening but apparently they flower best after a cold, harsh winter, who knew?

On another positive note, we have new neighbors! It seems that untidy stick across the entry is to keep out unwanted visitors. There's been lots of singing but no signs of any hatchlings yet.

Finally, Burt and Ivy decided to flaunt convention and threw a Friday the 13th party. As usual, it got completely out of hand but since they're not superstitious, they don't believe in bad luck. Guess we will see how well that works out for them.

Do you celebrate on Friday the 13th? 

Thanks for stopping by!

A Visit from the Pelicans

Please pardon my negligence, it's been way too long since I've added a new post to my blog. Somewhere, deep in my subconscious, I think I was waiting for all the immigrant children to be reunited with their families and all the other horrible things to be resolved (like that was ever going to happen!) So even though it still doesn't feel right to carry on as if bad stuff doesn't exist, not blogging isn't the answer either. So here are some pictures of pelicans because I was lucky enough to get a chance to photograph these big, goofy birds and we can all use some cheering up!

In the middle of May I took these photos of American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) as they passed though town, probably on their way to Canada. Although, lately they seem to be around all summer and they do nest in the area. We are on the migratory route between the Gulf of Mexico and Canada so there's quite a parade of water fowl in the spring. I missed seeing the beautiful swans and elegant cranes that came by earlier but these guys made up for it by putting on a good show.

Pelicans are very social birds often nesting in large groups. Here in town, there were hundreds of them hanging out on Monkey Island, a manmade narrow rectangle of land that circles the city's water supply equipment in Lake Winnebago. Yeah, that's a really icky thought, think I'll go change my water filters now. In any case, they didn't stay very long since there is a lot of boat traffic in the area and this is where the city shoots off the fireworks on the 4th of July.

They fly in formation, like ducks and geese but instead of sticking their necks out they keep their heads tucked back towards their body. I've only seen them flying in groups of six or less.

They also like to "fish" together, cooperating in order to corral their dinner so they're easier to catch. They look so cute, as if they are patiently waiting for their turn to eat, ha! Luckily, they don't upset the local fishermen because they feed on the undesirable species that occupy the shallow waters.

Pelicans consume about four pounds of fish, crayfish and frogs each day. Instead of diving for their prey, they scoop them up as they innocently swim by, usually with a lot of water. You can see the outline of one unfortunate fish in the expandable throat sac of the bird above. They let the water drain out before tossing their heads back and swallowing the fish whole. Sorry, I didn't get a photo of that!      

Those funny looking knobs on the top of their beaks are actually referred to as horns. They appear on both the males and females just before the mating season begins, later in the summer after they lay their eggs they fall off. 

With an average wingspan of eight feet, only the California Condor beats out White Pelicans for having the widest wingspan of all North American birds. Since they typically weigh between 11 and 20 pounds, it seems like their bodies must the same size as a typical Thanksgiving turkey, minus two yards of wings and a foot long beak! Guess they need those long wings to keep them up in the air!  

Oddly, adult White Pelicans are for the most part silent unless they are involved in aggressive behavior. Then they make a very low rumbling sort of noise that sounds a lot like heavy furniture being pushed across a hardwood floor. The chicks will squawk if they are too hot or too cold. Our ever present, talkative seagulls could learn a thing or two from them about not being noisy.  

This cute pair of Mallards seemed totally unfazed by the invasion of giant pelicans. They are here all year round so I expect they're used to all sorts of weird people, boats and birds. It's a big lake.

There's plenty of room.

Thank you (and the pelicans) for stopping by!

Stay cool! I hope to be back soon with a Spring Catch Up.