2012 has been an odd one so far. These leaves lie beneath a thin sheet of ice in the first week of January.
There had been no snow since the end of October, and while we had nighttime freezing, most days were above freezing, many in the 40's.
Since the middle of the pond wasn't frozen, I let Flora play on the icy edges.
She yanked out a frozen-in stick.
It really did seem strange to be in the winter woods with no snow cover. I looked at mosses and liverworts that would have otherwise been covered. Below is a leafy liverwort, Lophocolea, growing on a barkless old log. They are so so tiny - the leafy branches are less than 1mm wide.
I checked on them regularly and finally found them fruiting on April 6th. Again, I can't say exactly how tiny these are but invisible to my naked and glassed eyes. Only with the loupe could I see the sporophytes. And my wonderful 105mm macro lens.
If not for the early (5pm) setting sun and rising moon, I'd hardly believe it was January.
I walked nearly every day in these same woods near my house, the days gradually lengthening, on the lookout for new life.
I walked nearly every day in these same woods near my house, the days gradually lengthening, on the lookout for new life.
In late February I heard the hoo-hoo-hoo-hooooot of the barred owl and saw one alight as I passed under a grove of hemlocks. They are absolutely silent when they take off. If not for their huge wingspan, it would likely have flown unnoticed. I did not get a picture!
In March, AT LAST, I find blooming - the Corylus (hazelnut). The soft, buttery yellow catkins caught my eye at first
and then the bright red spots of their pistillate blooms.
Though the long wait for spring seems just as long as previous years, I find, in looking at older photos, that the hazelnut usually blooms almost a full month later. A few days later I find skunk cabbage in full stink and that's about two weeks earlier than last year.
One week later, March 22, I find some lovely willows - both a male
and a female
These I photographed last year on April 8th, so that's about a two-week difference.
In the first week of April, this year, I find the Carex pensylvaticum and
and not a whole lot else - so I look at the mosses
The next day, sitting atop a rocky outcrop, I'm delighted to find some dwarfed-looking chickweed, saxifraga and bluets thriving in the crevices.
Before getting back in the car, I like to sit on a stump in the meadow while Flora mucks around. I really hated that my memory-stick ran out as she lept to capture the cattail tops.
A good time was had by all and now I leave you with this message from the marsh:
Let me know if you decipher it! Thanks for browsing my blog.
The changing weather is all too apparent here in South Carolina. Every year in my memory, we have had a light snow, just enough for sledding. Most years we get two of these. None in 2012. In fact, by the end of March, we already had temps above 90, which usually don't come till late June. We have skipped Spring and gone straight to high Summer.
ReplyDeleteToby, beautiful photographs as always, and an interesting narrative to go with them. I have three of your photos up in my office at school. Everyone who comes by remarks on their gorgeousness.
ReplyDeleteBill P.