It’s a spectacular year for Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium tricorne).

Its beautiful, deep blue flowers are blooming now in the woods near creeks and rivers in western Pennsylvania.  I’ve seen it this spring at Cedar Creek, Enlow Fork and Barking Slopes.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Bluets (Houstonia caerulea) are one of my favorite flowers.  Where they grow well, they form a pale blue carpet.  Don’t mow them!

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Last year, WQED’s Web Department made three videos for me to post on my blog:  An April Hike at Raccoon Creek State Park, the Pitt Peregrine Fledge Watch, and a third (not yet edited) film of Marcy Cunkelman’s garden in August.

Though it was filmed last year on April 23, the Web Department had to wait until their summer intern, Christa Majoras, was available to edit it.  Christa did a fine job and completed the video in July, but by then these scenes of April were out of season so I saved the video for this week.

My plan was to show you a preview of flowers-to-come but life is full of twists and turns.  Who could imagine we’d have a spring so warm that the plants would be two to three weeks ahead of schedule?  This video is again out of season — late by two weeks.

Use your imagination as you watch.  Go back in time to March 31 and remember what the landscape looked like.  Or watch this video for signs of just how far ahead this spring is compared to April 2009.

Sit back and enjoy An April Hike.

(video filmed by Joan Guerin, edited by Christa Majoras)

 note\\flashvideo file=”https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/video/april_hike_7-16-09.flv” image=”http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/kate_AprilHike_video3.jpg” /

The wildflowers bloomed and faded so quickly last weekend that it may be difficult to find this one in our area now, but it’s worth a try.

Hepatica is a delicate little white or lavender flower with basal leaves. 

The leaves grow directly from the base of the plant instead of on the stem.  They often hide under last autumn’s leaf litter but you’ll have to find them to know which variety of Hepatica you’ve found:  Sharp-lobed Hepatica or Round-lobed Hepatica.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

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)

29 March 2010

I’ve been watching carefully and now I’ve seen them.  Our post-winter landscape is dotted with blotches of pale green.  The first leaves! 

What plants are these that sprout first?

In my neighborhood they’re bush honeysuckle, an invasive woody shrub that thrives almost anywhere.  I haven’t bothered to determine the species, there are so many: Amur (Lonerica maackii), Morrow’s (Lonerica morrowii), Tartarian (Lonerica tartarica) and more.  All of them, alas, are invasive.

Non-native plants often thrive because they’re out of synch with our seasons.  They’re the first to produce leaves and the last to drop them because they’re responding to the amount of daylight in their place of origin.  Bush honeysuckles come from Asia, Turkey and southern Russia so they open their leaves just after the spring equinox, at least a week ahead of our wary native plants.  They’re not hurt by being early because they’re hardy enough to survive a late frost or snowstorm.

Knowing all this, I should be upset that the bush honeysuckles are leafing out.  But I can’t help it. 

We have leaves!

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

Here’s a flower that’s one of the first signs of spring in Pennsylvania’s woods and it’s blooming right now.

Northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is a native shrub, 6-12 feet tall, that grows in moist locations in woods, valleys and along streams.

In March and early April its small yellow flowers bloom, clustered on the stems before the leaves emerge.  There are so many flowers that the bushes look showy in our otherwise brown landscape.  Don’t be fooled by this close-up, though.  The flowers are quite tiny.

Spicebush is the host plant for the Spicebush Swallowtail, a beautiful butterfly whose caterpillar form looks funny with a huge, fake face “painted” on its back.  You can find these caterpillars eating spicebush leaves in the summer.  (Click here to see.)

By fall the flowers have become small red berries, called drupes, which provide good food for birds.  Robins and catbirds are particularly fond of them.

When you’re out in the woods, look for spicebush.  You can identify it by smell — that’s how it got its name.  Just run your fingernail along the bark and smell it’s spicy, aromatic scent.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)