spring in west virginia   Fores-@aol.com
  Apr 10, 2004 06:37 PDT 
ENTS friends:

I have been running on a woods lore deficit for about three weeks.

Until the other day, I thought ENTS was unusually quiet.

I just found my e-mail was blocking the posts.

I read over bunches of old posts and am glad to be getting back in the loop.

It is now early spring in West Virginia and all the small town fire
departments are having their annual ramp dinners.

The first of the morel mushrooms are starting to emerge.

Blue Cohosh is nearly 18 inches tall and flowering.

Bloodroot is blossoming and wild pear trees are in bloom.

Mayapple is four inches tall.

Dogwood is just starting to bloom.

Red maple is almost done and paw paw is just starting to flower.

Deep woods neotropical birds are passing through on their way to Canada and
the morning sounds in the woods are a once a year symphony that never gets old.

Redbud is just starting to "bud" and the visibility through the hardwood
forest is diminishing to a degree that is noticeable on a daily basis as buds
swell and the very first leaves of the buckeye emerge.

Yesterday, I picked off my first tick of the year.

Otherwise, life is good in the bowels of Appalachia.

Russ Richardson
RE: spring in west virginia...Wisconsin   Paul Jost
  Apr 10, 2004 07:50 PDT 

Russ,

All the blackbirds: cowbirds, starlings, grackles, red-wing blackbirds
returned the first day of March.   The vernal pools are full (there are
three of them on my property.) The deafening western chorus frog songs are
on the decline and individual frog's songs can be differentiated from the
other now after having been singing and mating since about the time that the
blackbirds arrived. Other frog species' songs will continue the performance
as the spring progresses. The spring prairie wildflowers such as nodding
wild onions and shooting stars have broken the ground's surface about a week
or so ago, the boxelders are in full bloom...The goldfinches are starting to moult into their summer yellows.

None of the native trees have flowered or leafed out yet here. The exotic
tartarian honeysuckle have just started to green up over the last few days
and the exotic multiflora rose and european buckthorns are next. I don't
expect the full native leaf out and return of the warblers until the first
week of May. I had my first mosquito bite the other day - one that looked
very different from the summer mosquitos - a larger dark gray body with a
single white band around the abdomen. Spring is just starting to arrive
here!

Paul Jost
Wildlife milestones   edniz
  Apr 12, 2004 02:34 PDT 

Hello,
        Spring seems to be proceeding according to plan here in the Southern
Tier, but we have recently had two wildlife milestones. A local naturalist
has confirmed that a fisher has made it into the Southern Tier. This person
spotted it as roadkill. When the article appeared in the paper many other
individuals said they had seen this animal themselves.
        There was also a report on Sat., April 10th, of a cougar being seen
near an elementary school in Canton, PA. This is just over the border from
us. Kids are being kept out of the playground because of three credible
reports regarding this animal. The last report of a mountain lion being
killed in the wild in PA was 1880. A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game
Commission said that it might be a bobcat.

Ed Nizalowski