Nature Notes Challenge

Michelle at Rambling Woods has a nice new meme to share called NatureNotes. She says: "I am going to challenge myself and hopefully you to take a look at nature. What’s going on in your area? Is it spring in your part of the world or are you heading into cold weather. Take a little walk, look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?..Step outside and close your eyes. What do you hear? ….

I’d really like to know how my blogger friends observe about nature. Post a photo..a poem..artwork or a few words about what you see, how you felt and maybe something you hadn’t paid any attention to before… "

Funny you should ask, Michelle, as I've been outside poking around quite a bit these past few days, and I just came back in from a tour of the pond. Something with a huge wingspan has been patrolling the back yard all day, and I saw a lone tom turkey go by at the edge of the woods, so I set off with my binoculars and camera. I caught the turkey - enlarge the photo to see it - but the other one got away.

I wish you could hear the frogs. I ventured into the swampy areas of the back woods looking for them, but couldn't see any to photograph. Nevertheless, I reveled in the sound of their singing. We called these "spring peepers" in West Virginia, and hearing them again swept me back to the soft, green, mountain springs of my childhood.

Somewhere behind the frog ponds, I could hear something that sounded like a tractor engine idling. I was concerned, wondering who might be back there and what they might be up to. So I went a bit deeper, using the binoculars to search the woods as I went.

Gradually, I realized I was not hearing an engine at all, but frogs of a different voice. The thrumming sound came from all around. There must have been hundreds of them, and yet I couldn't see a single one. It was as if the whole wood were one beating heart.

As for the garden, there are some legacy plants poking up in the meager flower patch out front. Daffodils and iris, for sure, and others I can't yet identify as friend or foe.

The big twiggy bush in the front yard has turned out to be a pussy willow, which I did not expect.

There are still lots of spent field weeds and wildflowers at the edges of the yard, including this milkweed stalk with one lone seed that has failed to launch:



And that's about it for today. I haven't given up on that hawk/buzzard/eagle, though, and if I get a shot at it I'll post it later.

Thanks for the meme, Michelle! This is going to be fun.
*Join the group at Rambling Woods.