That takes me back. My earliest childhood memories go back to San Diego. Hope you’re having a good time. Hope you find some good Mexican food. Best fish taco I ever ate was at the Prado restaurant but they’re only served during lunch. Set right in the park. The outdoor tables are in a fern filled canyon. (Best with sangria but they’ll serve you a margarita in a large goldfish bowl too.
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Very impressive mud. Thanks for naming the fern and osprey
Confess I’m developing a hankering for crustaceans.
Thanks for these, Dale! I keep hearing them, when I’m outside, but there are too many trees around to see any big, open fields from my yard.
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Our local woodcock has been back for weeks.
This is what you’d see, if I posted a photo:
Before sun-up and after sun-down, he sits in about the same spot (I think every year!) and buzzes for a mate. We hear something like this:
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It occurred to me after I posted those that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen quite that many before. (We’ve been here 48 years, so there is a slight chance my senior memory is not serving ; - ). I did hear on local news that they are further north from the river this year, though, not that we are very far from it, but their congregating pattern apparently has changed some.
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The recording third up from the bottom labeled “New York, December 10, 2016” is most typical of what we hear when they are in the field – it’s kind of a cheery sound 
:
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Juvenile, very young , southern broad banded water snake. Really pretty patters and red.
Fairly big bullfrog.
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Fairly big!
Yes, indeed.
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They get about 4x bigger. This one is still young. But they are already strong. They can hop 3-4 feet easily at this size and when those hung legs kick off in your hand their slippery bodies just pop away. It was really hard to catch. In a swamp with water even 2 feet deep it’s next to impossible. This one can hop 7-8 feet in a second. It can swim in bursts of 10 feet in like 2 seconds.
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Spring green to winter white in a week. Snowed last night. I cherish these illusions of normalcy, when they occur any more. Spring in Michigan is often fickle, tumultuous and violent. Beautiful spring scenes from Easter cards are freakish and disturbing here. Hopefully, we’ll have some lightening and black clouds of gloom soon that last for a few days. It would be a gift (although an illusion). Sorry birdies.
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Where I live it almost never snows and when it does does it’s not even 1/16th high and disappears. It’s more like these flurries in the sky that
melts before it hits the ground. We’re not officially past our last frost dates here. It will be 65-78°f for a few weeks and then a day or two of a northern cold front pushing night temps down to 30s and then climbs back up to the 70s. Like right now it’s 46°f outside but by 2pm it’s 78°f. I have to keep telling people here don’t start your seeds yet. You’ll be 2-3 weeks in and the last frost will kill them. Tons of people around me Lost all of there germinating vegetables last week when a cold front came through and drove temps to 30°f. They thought it was safe because it did not drop below 65° for two weeks. Most people here begin their vegetables around 15th of April. But then yoite usually good through November. Im about to head back to that pond today. Most of the wildlife , except spiders are gone now that it’s been emptied. It had a leak and has only been half full for like 8 months. Hopefully having 2-3 more pond rebuilds this week and another 400 foot dune walk and pier. I’m in the process of lining out work from contractors so that hopefully can keep 60 hours a week for the next 4 months. Trying to focus on a lot of pond jobs to really learn the skill. Thinking of also getting some books on aquariums and learning that and working with some of the local pet stores with fishes for in-house maintenance and emergencies. Have a friend who is doing it about 90 minutes away and says often he gets called for this area but can’t do it because it’s not worth the time. He charges $150 an hour plus parts and chemicals and that includes the drive to and from the shop. So something that would cost $200 is costing the client $600 and 95% of the time they just cant do that. Plus I really want to do a big aquarium for my own. I’ve seen some that are like 12l x 4d x and 4w that just seems really cool with oyster reefs in it, aquatic snails and numerous species of fishes and will even have mud tanks and small bank areas with salamanders and stuff in some.
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Same song in a different key here. We grow the best-tasting apples, cherries and peaches (sorry folks from Georgia) in Michigan, but the weird springs for the last decade are causing the trees to bloom too early, before our last frost. The fruit crops have been decimated a few times recently, and “greatly diminished” has become the norm.
I’ve seen some that are like 12l x 4d x and 4w that just seems really cool with oyster reefs in it, aquatic snails and numerous species of fishes and will even have mud tanks and small bank areas with salamanders and stuff in some.
Sounds absolutely magical!
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Yes, in our region some of the fruit growers remarked with one early, false spring that caused a lot of apple blossoms to die in a hard frost, so few survived that they could give personal names to each one! (as opposed to harvesting thousands upon thousands).
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Yep. “My apple man” had 500 trees and hadly any apples that year. And no peaches. His peaches were the best I’d ever tasted.
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I love living here. I know so many people feel it’s gloomy and the winters are harsh. It’s so beautiful, even when it’s cold. Summers are harder on me, particularly now that they’re hotter.
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I’m glad you enjoy the cold! I am only just beginning to tolerate it–getting trail running shoes that are safe for the snow has been fun. I grew up in West Africa, and would rather be sweating than freezing, typically. However, it is beautiful and green here.
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