Spring 4: Animals can "spring," too!

My free period today was at 1pm--late enough, I decided, for the weather to be warm--so I ventured out in shirtsleeves, learning too late that the temperature was in the forties.  I walked almost entirely around the school, looking for new things, catching up with old.  Wandering in a little clearing, I was startled by the sudden crashing of a large animal through the woods a dozen yards away.  The poor thing--a deer, I assume--was as taken aback by my presence as I was by its.  In its haste it knocked down a little rotten tree, bounded across a path (a barely-seen blur of brown), and then splashed clumsily through a series of little vernal ponds.  No photo, of course.  

Certainly deer do pass through parts of Brockton and may even live in the wilder parts, but I somehow never imagined seeing one at school.  Probably because I am seldom there without a few dozen kids accompanying me.  

 

This rotted old birch tree made a lot of noise when the deer knocked it over.

 

The male flower are beginning to fall from some trees; their lives are nearly over.

This image is clear enough for you to see a little of the history of this tree: 

 three seasons of growth, marked not only by changes in the color of the twig segments,

but also scars encircling the twig where it ended the summer before.

(Such a scar is clear between the buds just left of the flowers.)

 

I thought this was another alder, but the fuzzy male catkins now whisper, "willow."

 

This oak's buds have barely expanded yet.

 

The rose leaves are becoming big enough to be recognizable.

 

The velvet leaves of this common mullein (Verbascum thapsis) 

were probably already growing when there was still snow on the ground.

 

A couple of mystery plants; I'll probably be able to identify them in a few weeks.

 

I tend to ignore cultivated plants, but my wife's beloved lilacs are well along.

 

This pignut hickory is one of the trees I'm keeping a "professional" eye on

for the Nature's Notebook project of the National Phrenology Network.

Enjoy Spring With Me

At long last, after weeks of getting ready, things are popping out all over.  I had been watching the red maple buds redden and expand, then I was distracted for a few days.  Today they are all in full bloom.  I shouldn't have blinked!  I walked around at the high school for awhile today, discovering alder flowers blowing in the wind.  The buds of the Norway maples are huge: they, too, will bloom in a few days time.  In the coming days, I plan to keep up with the changes as best I can.  

 

Long catkins blowing like flags from this alder are clusters of male flowers.

They are shedding pollen to be carried by wind to female flowers.

(Male and female flowers are borne on the same tree, though they generally cross with other trees.)

 

Very windy day today.

 

Cluster of red maple male flowers, showing the long, yellowish stamens that produce the pollen.

 

Female red maple flowers; the stigmas that dangle like antennae will receive the wind-blown pollen.

Their flowers are small but many, making red maples easy to pick out beside the highway right now.

Red maples in the wind.

We love the small willows that are nicknamed "pussy willows."

Not "Wild" wild, but very pretty!

D. W. Field Park spans a large north-south area around Brockton's northern border.

I haven't walked in D.W. FieldPark in a long time--shocking, considering how close I live to the Jewel of the city.  Today is incredibly warm and sunny, and my youngest son and I took the dogs there as an excuse to visit.

The park is paved in loops with lanes for both driving and pedestrians.

A low hill makes a perfect vantage.

The park is arranged around a series of ponds.

Stephen has both dogs so I can take a photo.

Golda and Linkin had a ball, except that every other dog owner in the city seemed to be there.

(Seeing another dog, Linkin especially becomes a dogicidal maniac.)

Park benches make nice places for contemplating the landscape.

A "lantern tree" (American beech).

I've been putting down D.W. FieldPark as I've lately emphasized Wild Places, forgetting how beautiful it is.  Although a designed landscape (inspired by Frederick Law Olmsted) which may be heading for a makeover, I would now call it fairly "naturalized," though of course it is still managed--witness the obvious black top, and slightly subtler marks of the chainsaw.

On the other hand, I am considering managing my own little Wild Place come spring, tearing out as much of the invasive English ivy, vinca, and European buckthorn as I can, along with a few of the smaller Norway maples (also invasive); and planting a few native trees like white pine.  I will be trading a bit of land compromised in one way, with land compromised in another, more tolerable, way.  Less wild, more "wilderness."