Last week was typical of my early May schedule: searching for garlic mustard and creeping bellflower. Weeding rules #1 and #2 were strictly followed. They are: see other stuff, and listen to bird sounds. We burned the north woods and unit 19D this year, so the weedy sprouts are mostly very small. I’ve been pulling and disrupting the mustard and treating the bellflower with G4 drips. You don’t need or want more pictures of these. Refer to other blogs if I am wrong.

See other stuff

see a flower bloom
but acres of trilliums
are invisible

In my experience, weeds tend not to be found among the trillium and may apple. Perhaps their extensive roots/rhizomes prevent easy invasion?

Listen to bird sounds

In two days, over the course of about 8 hours or so, I was treated to mini concerts: solos, quartets, various choruses of birds.

Near the barn and driving up the hill in the mule were the sounds of swamp sparrow, song sparrow, warbling vireo (manic), mourning dove (calming), common yellowthroat, robin, goose, redwing blackbird, crow, blue jay, ring-necked pheasant, sandhill crane, common snipe, field sparrow and phoebe. Single, several and all together.

Up in the woods, in order of appearance: rose-breasted grosbeak (sweet solos), Baltimore oriole (loud, sparring males), house wren (chatter), catbird (mimicking all), red-bellied woodpecker, yellow-bellied sapsucker, white-breasted nuthatch, scarlet tanager (recovering from a cold), downy woodpecker, cedar waxwing (never just one), red-eyed vireo, yellow-throated vireo, cardinal, and pileated woodpecker.

Lastly, on Thursday morning, newcomers brought extra smiles: orchard oriole and indigo bunting (fire fire where where?).
And Kathie and the kestrel crew banded the adult female kestrel who is currently nesting in the crane prairie box, near the outhouse.

Deer ticks are plentiful

Deer ticks seem to be plentiful this year in leafy areas of the woods where the fire didn’t manage to penetrate.

On Wednesday, as further reward, I discovered three deer ticks digging into the flesh of my upper arm, the arm whose hand had been searching for garlic mustard seedlings among last year’s leaves. I popped two doxycycline to prevent lyme disease, and went back into the woods on Thursday.

Carry on…