When I took this photo on Saturday, I was excited to see Pittsburgh’s northern magnolias starting to bloom. But now only four days later their flowers are full-blown, the petals are starting to fall, and this picture no longer applies.
Spring is happening too fast this year. The weather is too hot. It will be in the 80’s again today.
I don’t keep an accurate record of blooming times but it seems to me that all the flowers are early this year. Have you noticed it?
Can you tell me how many weeks ahead the blooms are?
(photo by Kate St. John)
And even crazier (for us) is we’re in full bloom in New Hampshire! 80s for us today also.
We head to Pittsburgh every April to visit family and we always leave winter and drive into the beginning of spring – not this year. Makes you wonder if we’re in for a real scorcher this summer.
Hi Kate,
The Serviceberry you featured a few days ago is now a huge white cloud of blossoms. This is about 2-3 week early….it usually is like this near the end of April. You literally can see the plants come alive from morning until afternoon. This heat has brought up many early wildflowers and the trees and shrubs are way ahead in putting out leaves. It’s not going to be easy seeing the warblers in the trees this year.
Something else missing, are the bees…I am seeing very few honeybees or the tiny bees at my flowers…The whole yard is in bloom, and the most bees I am seeing are the carpenter bees, which love to bore into the deck and other wood…not good to have this many…they even look in the window and psyche me out, thinking it’s a hummer…did you know a hummer was seen in WPA on 4/4 and they are already up to Canada already? I have my hummer feeder up already, although 4/25 is my earliest date…they seem to be later for our region with the mountains..but I am ready anyway, just incase!
Still enjoying this most wonderful time of the year and finding all the little miracles everyday….Marcy
It has been very early this year. But very beautiful with everything out at once! My crocus are gone, as well as small daffadils and the regular size about to go. Tulips are out and Rhododendron. Magnolia well budded. Afraid by mid-April all will be gone. Expecting hummer soon. Usually they come very end of April or early May. I hope we do not have very hot and dry summer.
I noticed all all the blooming trees yesterday. WEnt grocery shopping & noticed the full blooming magnolia trees & other bushes in full bloom & all the trees still bare twigs. Beautiful but very early. In our complex they have ev en taken the cover off the pool. But they don’t openuntil Mem. Day. And I don’t remember the last time we had such a warm opening baseball day. I guess we just have to enjoy it & not worry about it & some yr. when we are all freezing in April we cant hink back on it. Faith.
Ask and you shall see….there are tons of tiny bees and “real” bumblebees on my pjm rhododendron right outside the front door…and a Spring Azure Butterfly(tiny blue butterfly when it’s flying/grayish when closed).
More popped up from yesterday evening…
I saw bloodroot blooming in North Park yesterday (and also hepatica). I remember bloodroot blooming on my oldest son’s birthday, April 25, when he was little. This year he will be 25!
In early March, I heard a talk by Peter Nye (New York St. Dept of Envir. Conserv.) about bald eagles. He is now the leader of the DEC’s Endangered Species Unit, and for ~30 years involved with the state’s bald eagle reestablishment program. He claimed (I think that he would admit it was somewhat anecdotal) that the egg laying date(s) for bald eagles is earlier now than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
Is there any evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, of similar behavior with peregrines, or red-tails?
David, I checked with Art McMorris who keeps tabs on the peregrines in PA & has access to all the records. The fact that peregrines were extinct in the eastern US means there’s no answer for that time period. Art wrote” “No evidence that I know of for peregrines, but 20 or 30 years ago there were very few peregrines, so the comparison would be weak. Better to compare with the pre-DDT period, and frankly I just don’t know.”
The safe pre-DDT period was before WWII. Data from that time period would be very hard to find.
Thanks for the info. about the hummers in the comments. I was wondering when to put out my feeder. I think today might be a good day!
Kate…Love all the photos you post and information. I now know the name of the tree at the end of my lane and am looking forward to seeing what you have in store for us in the future!
In SE Ohio, all of the spring flowers are also about gone. The tulips are in full bloom yards are being mowed on a regular basis. At least the fruit trees made it through the frost the other night. It got to 32 degrees, but nothing seemed to have gotten damaged.
On April 15, 2008, our mare foaled a filly. We named her Daffodil, since our daffodils were just starting to bloom.
This year, they started to bloom a full 2 weeks earlier! They are now past their prime and fading fast.