It’s been a slow, cool spring – no big storms or dramatic temperature swings.  Just gradually getting warmer every week.

The overwintering butterflies have been all over the driveway in the last week or so – any time there’s been a little sun.

Compton Tortoiseshell

Nymphalis vau-album

I also see butterflies along woodland trails.  Certain places seem to be favorite spots – I see butterflies in those places every spring. I think they’re males – chasing other males away, and keep an eye out for females.

One of two Eastern Commas who were debating over who would control this sunny spot along a path.

Polygonia comma

A Gray Comma, on another path

Polygonia progne

Mourning Cloak

Nymphalis antiopa

These early butterflies eat sap from trees – not flower nectar.  Yesterday I found a basswood tree with 5 butterflies and one moth clustered on the trunk where sap was dripping.

These are the three Compton Tortoiseshells.  There were also one Mourning Cloak, one Eastern Comma, and one Infant Moth farther up the tree.

Nymphalis vau-album

Two of the Comptons Tortoiseshells

Nymphalis vau-album

The flowers are still not quite blooming.  Every few days I go searching, but I haven’t found any open ones.

This is Sand Cress – a small mustard that grows on our bluff prairies – with a tiny flower stalk but no flowers.

Arabis lyrata

And another small mustard – Common Whitlow Grass – with buds that aren’t quite open.

Draba reptans

Some of the flowers that will bloom later are coming up too.

Hoary Puccoon

Lithospermum canescens

Pussytoes

Antennaria plantaginifolia

One that is blooming, even though it’s not a showy flower, is Pennsylvania Sedge.

Carex pennsylvanica

Scarlet Cup Fungus in the woods

Sarcoscypha coccinea

The Turkey Vultures are back – soaring over the points and checking out the winter’s crop of deer carcasses.

Turkey Vulture

Wood Frogs have been calling in our neighbor’s pond.  They don’t like being disturbed, but if I sit next to the pond and wait for about 10 minutes, they forget I’m there, and start calling again.  The males float on the water calling and waiting for females to show up.

Rana sylvatica

The beavers have been hard at work on the creek in our wetland.  They’ve built two big dams that make big, deep pools behind them.   This is the view from above.

Here’s one of the dams

and part of the lake behind it.

Our friends Carol and Jerry came to visit and we took them for a long walk – a two bench walk.  (We have 3 benches, on 3 different points.  It takes a very long walk to get to all 3.)

There haven’t been very many warm nights – but one night was warm enough that the moths came out.  There were dozens of moths crawling up our windows toward the light.  I captured a few and took their pictures.  Someday I’ll be able to identify them all!  They’re beautiful little creatures, with complicated patterns on their wings.

Another insect adventure happened after I collected some sticks with lichens growing on them and brought them into the house to identify.  One morning I noticed lots of tiny insects on the counter around them.  I thought at first that they were gnats or mosquitoes – they were about that size.  But when I looked at them with a magnifying glass, it turned out that they were tiny grasshoppers!

I put them in a cage with plants to eat, but they don’t seem to be very interested in eating.  It may be warm enough now that they could survive outside.