As Tom has mentioned in his latest blog, the fish are swimming, the spring wildflowers are blooming, and the birds are migrating through. I experienced all of these spending time in Adams County this weekend.
Walking through the woods and driving various roads this weekend, I saw various blooming wildflowers. Everything from late blooming Hepaticas to early blooming Grandiflora Trillium. Other flowers that were blooming included Bloodroot, Wild Ginger, Bellworts, Virginia Bluebells, Blue-Eyed Marys (pictured above), Spring Beauty, Springcress, Sensille Trillium, Dutchman's Breeches, Wild Blue Phlox, Pennywort, Rue Anemone, and Cutleaf Toothwort. there were a lot of other plants who are just beginning to "spring" forth from the ground and others whose buds are starting to show. The Redbud trees are almost at their prime color right now!
As for the birds, I saw or heard this weekend they ranged from the early nesters to the migrants. They included Bald Eagles, Osprey, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Ovenbird, Prothonotory Warblers,Bluebirds, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Eastern Phoebes, Red-Tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered hawks, Great Egrets (pictured above), Green Herons, Great-Blue Herons, Kingfishers, and Wild Turkeys. (By the way the youth turkey season started this past weekend with the adult season starting today continuing through May 18th. I am sure Tom will have more to say on that subject shortly.) There were plenty of other birds that I saw or heard that I haven't listed here. What I would suggest is to take a walk in the woods, taking your time to look, listen, and observe. You might be amazed at what you will see.
