iNaturalist

I am moving my nature journaling over to iNaturalist. For now. :)

Spring flower

Trees and bees.

During my lunch hour I took a walk along the river. The trees that bear fruit that no animal seems to like were in full bloom. The white blossoms were fragrant. Each tree I looked at had at least a few bees buzzing about.

Date: April 27, 2015
Time: 1:12pm
Location: Steamboat Park
Temperature: around 65 °F
Wind: 17mph
Skies: altocirrus

Butterfly

I am Not sure what kind of butterfly this is. I think it may be a swallow tail. I saw two of them around this forsythia bush on Farm  Island.

Chorus Frogs

Date: April 11th 2015
Time: 7: 40 p.m.
Location: Farm Island causeway
Temperature: 80 degrees Fahrenheit
Wind: 20 miles per hour

The chorus frogs were really singing. I heard them about 2 weeks ago but they were not as loud as they were last night. Always a welcome sign of spring.
Since they stop singing when you get close it's hard to get a picture. So this picture is of the wetland near the Missouri River where you can hear them.

Budburst

Date: April 9, 2015
Time: 8:30 AM CDT
Location: South Dakota Discovery Center
Temperature: 40°F
Winds: ~20mph
Skies: nimbostratus.

Things are starting to bud out. I see redbuds in bloom when I take my lunch time constitutional. We have had some above normal temps with low precipitation in the weeks leading up this one. My hope is that the rain we are getting today will help things green up.

This photo is of a red osier dogwood by the South Dakota Discovery Center's butterfly garden. You can barely see the budburst but they are there. The bud on the bottom left is 1.5 cm long.

The red osier dogwood is a species of interest for Project Budburst, a phenology based citizen science project.  Look for the report on the Budburst map.

Farm Island

Date: Sunday March 22, 2015
Time: 12:00pm CDT
Location: Farm Island
Temperature: 45°F
Wind: ~15mph
Skies: altocumulus

I took a long walk on Farm Island on this early spring day. The cardinals were particularly active vocalizers. I saw or heard chickadees, nuthatches, juncos, flicker, a red wing blackbird, and many robins way at the end of the island. They are still in first wave formation, not spreading out to their territories yet.

I also came upon an unbeknownst to me wetland with hundreds of ducks. When I was approaching it, I heard what I thought at first were chorus frogs. Even though the sound wasn't quite right for a chorus frog, I didn't know what else it could be as it was obvious there were a lot of whatever it was. I finally got close enough to see through the brush to a good sized area full of all kinds of ducks.

I didn't have my binoculars so I couldn't get a good view but I saw coots among them.

I also saw an adult bald eagle.

The video offers some bird sounds (chickadees and cardinals) as well as a view of the terrain in early spring. I come back from these rambles with a lot of burrs and grass in my shoes and pants.