The Weather is Getting Warmer

In case you haven’t noticed, the weather is getting warmer. Not that it was a bad winter (until the darned COVID-19 hit), it’s just getting warmer. The sun is higher and we have more hours of daylight. Look at your calendar. Spring is here – it officially arrived at 11:49 p.m. March 19.

The Equinox Brick

I found the madman out back looking at his brick – the equinox brick, we call it. On the equinoxes, the shadow of our house hits this brick at noon (we also have a brick for each of the solstices, it’s a madman thing just in case calendars go out of fashion). He claims that he was imagining an ancient Celt looking at an ancient version of a shadow marker which represented an important point in his wheel of the year – Ostara. Named for the spring goddess, Ostara, this point represents the re-awakening of the earth, and a re-awakening we are seeing.

Sounds of Change

On his morning rounds, the madman has noticed a change in the bird sounds outside. The calls have more of a warm feeling. He thinks that some of the birds that are heard but not seen because they hide in the woods are returning from warmer areas. Speaking of birds, he noticed a Red Wing Blackbird (Aqelaius phoeniceus) at the feeder earlier in the month. Usually our first sighting is a flock, not a single blackbird. The males show up first, although the madman says no one would recognize the female because she is boringly plain – the brown bird he calls her. The males flock together and fly during the day until they reach their breeding grounds where they then go their separate ways for the summer months. The females show up later.

Migrating vs. Hibernating

His sighting made me start checking my Journey North website on a daily basis. This is a wonderful website that reports the migration of songbirds, hummingbirds and butterflies, as well as other signs of spring. If you have never visited this website, check it out. It is full of a lot of useful migration information and even your children should enjoy tracking the birds as they fly north.

 We all know bears don’t migrate, they hibernate, although the madman wishes they would migrate and get lost. No matter, he’s heard lots of reports of bear activity in our area. So, this is the time of our “feed the birds, but don’t attract the bears” dance. He’s getting quite good at it.

Wood Frogs

The other day we heard some noises from the wet area in the back. The frogs were out. That was a good sign – it made the madman happy. These were Wood Frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) that over-winter in leaf litter in the woods and work their way towards pools to breed. Interestingly, male frogs keep hugging other frogs until they find a frog fat enough to be a female with eggs. The male call is a quacking or clucking sound – check out this link. Since the frog is a diurnal species, he’s only active during the day, unlike the Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) who keep us up at night.

Bees at the Birdfeeder

During his bird-feeding dance earlier in the month, the madman was stopped in his tracks by a horde of honey bees in the feeder. What were they doing there? The madman thought that perhaps this was a behavioral anomaly. Seems the weather was unusually warm and our neighborhood beehives sprang into action. They were out looking for food according to Howard Russell at Michigan State University Extension. Not enough flowers were available, so they hit the feeder looking for pollen sized dust and yeast particles.

This piqued the madman’s interest so we decided to visit beekeeper and master gardener friend Tom Kalal. Thanks to our current state of affairs, we changed our visit from in-person to a phone call.  We originally met Tom during our Master Gardener Course in 2011 and spent a lot of time together doing master gardener hours at the Focus Garden in Haddam. He, and his wife Nancy, run Cranberry Meadow Farm in East Lyme.

Tom concurred with Mr. Russell, but added that actually the bees had told their friends at the hive that they found a new device that dispensed what they think is food. Actually, bees will leave the hive in search of food when the outside temperature reaches 50˚. That means they may be active during warm winter days. If there aren’t enough flowers, the bees will visit birdfeeders, cattle feed and even sawdust piles from recent chain sawing. The madman thought he had enough flowers with his spring bulbs. But, Tom said that considering that a single bee may hit 1,000 flowers in a day our idea of plenty might not be the same as their idea of plenty.

What do Bees do in the Cold?

Since the bees only venture out when it’s warm, the madman was curious about what they did all winter. According to Tom, they form a mass roughly the size of a deflated soccer ball with the Queen in the center. They keep the hive around 72˚ from late November to the end of January.  By February they have raised the temperature to 92˚, and are ready to take advantage of a warm winter’s day.

The madman has not seen bees at the bird feeder lately. Tom said they bees have plenty of flowers now that the Red Maples (Acer rubrum) are in full bloom. Don’t believe it? – take a look at the trees outside.

Skunk Cabbage

Tom also wanted to talk about Skunk Cabbage, another on the list of early flowers available for bee visits. This plant is member of the Araceae family, and you all know how much the madman likes his Araceaes. I have to admit he used to hate skunk cabbage because it smelled bad and seemed to grow everywhere. But, like Tom says, it is an amazing plant.

Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is one of the first native wildflowers to appear in the spring, usually well before the equinox. The flower bud produces its own heat, often melting the snow around it. In fact, the temperature within the spathe can hit 70˚.  Scientists call the ability to produce heat thermogenesis (the madman likes those SAT words!).

Contractile Roots

Another interesting feature of skunk cabbage is that it has contractile roots. As the plant grows, the roots pull it deeper into the soil. The madman says “good luck trying to dig one out.” Like many other Araceaes its smell doesn’t delight humans, but flies and carrion beetles think this is one of the greatest treats going. Our friend Tom doesn’t care about these creatures, but he knows that his honey bees will use these plants as an early source of nectar and even shelter at times.

As an aside, Tom told the madman that although honey bees are important pollinators, our native bees are actually much better at the task, by a ratio of 3 to 1. Sounds like another good reason to consider native species in the landscape.

The Peas are in

And, by the way, before we visited with Tom and Nancy, the madman was doing a different dance – the Irish jig (okay, so it was the Polish version on an Irish jig). For the first time in MANY years, the ground was clear and warm enough to plant his peas on St. Patrick’s Day. So, the peas are in. Then, look what happened!

                And the hot chocolate is on.

“Gardening has not been cancelled.” – Gary Oppenheimer, founder of AmpleHarvest