Spring birds

Today's nature calendar task:

Look for robin, killdeer, grackle, cowbird, heron, brown creeper, phoebe.

We have seen the robin, killdeer, and grackle so far. On March 1st the nature task was to start a 'bird friends return' calendar. We have the calendar up on our fridge, and whenever we see a new arrival we jot it down. I need to print off a new calendar page for April.

Water your seedlings

Today's nature calendar task:

Be sure that you water your garden seedlings thoroughly as soon as they are dry looking.

We have two sets of seedlings growing right now.

Our milkweed seeds have just sprouted.

Our mystery seedlings have been growing for a week.

I have the seedlings set on the kitchen table. They are taking up valuable space, but if I put them anywhere else I will forget to water them.

March nature calendar highlights

We have been enjoying the activities from the March nature calendar immensely. If you are just beginning to study nature and you don't know where to start, this calendar is very handy. It doesn't take very long to do. It touches on a wide range of subjects, everything from constellations to insects to garden shrubs. It makes you aware of the changes that are happening seasonally. One warning, soon your kitchen will be full of little 'nature projects' that you have on the go!

Here is a sampling of some of the activities we have done this month:

March 2nd: Grow a clump of moss in a soup plate.

We've grown quite fond of our moss. I'm thinking of trying to find it a more permanent home, something more sophisticated than the soup plate. It will probably be around for a while. I am wondering if it will send up spore capsules.

March 5th: Garden shrubs will bloom quickly indoors in water now.

We have enjoyed the forsythia blooms on our kitchen table for weeks now.

March 8th: Get books on attracting birds and birdhouses.

Molly from The Birding Family left a comment about a fabulous book on this subject. It is called "Projects for the Birder's Garden" by Fern Marshall Bradley. It has many great ideas for attracting backyard birds. I have already started a few of them!

March 14th: Observe how the water in a stream wears, carries and deposits soil.

We had a lovely hike to a nearby stream to learn about erosion and the actions of water.

March 20th: From maple sap to maple sugar.

We made our annual trip to the sugar bush and the sap was flowing.

March 22nd: Chart the sunrise, sunset and length of day

We have been recording this information all month and learning about how the length of the day changes in springtime. There has been lots of great learning about this topic, we are certainly enjoying the longer days. It is great to just be aware of how fast the days are getting longer.

There are a number of things that I have had my eyes out for on our nature hikes but have yet to find: tent caterpillar eggs, moth cocoons, frogs eggs, a meadowlark, the song sparrow, the mourning cloak butterfly, and chipmunks. Even though we haven't seen them, it is nice having them in mind so that we keep our eyes out for them.

On our last hike we had a few special treats:

We saw a few fresh trees the local beavers had been working on.

And then the beaver himself swam by!

The chickadees were very friendly that day. We had a day like this in the fall, where they came to eat out of our hands. Of course I did not have my camera then.

All winter we have been calling them but they have not done this again until our hike last week. I pulled out the baggie of black oil sunflower seeds that I had been carrying around in my coat pocket all winter for just such an occasion (yes, I am a crazy nature girl, emphasis on crazy).

This chickadee is looking skeptically at my 2 year old. They would not come to her, which is wise, I think she would probably have shrieked with delight and given the poor bird a panic attack.

If you'd like to join us on our nature calendar adventures, here is a sneak peak at the month of April. I post daily about our experiences with each task. After all the fun that we had in March, I can't wait to see what is in store for us in April!

For today's nature task, click here.

Charting day length

Today's nature calendar task:

Complete the chart started March 15th. What conclusions can you make?

Sunrise: 7:06
Sunset: 7:40
Length of day: 12 hours, 33 minutes

We have been tracking this information for a few weeks now. So far we have only looked at the daily records, I need to put it all together so we can see the changes better. I have a book from the library called "Sunshine makes the seasons" by Franklyn M Branley from the Let's-Read-and-Find-out Science series. It has a great experiment in the back using an orange, a pencil and a flashlight. Franklyn M. Branley has many excellent books about science for kids.

We have learned that the length of the day changes fastest at the spring and fall equinoxes, and slowest at the winter and summer solstices. Since we have passed the spring equinox, the change in the length of day should be starting to slow down until the end of June, where the day length will stay approximately the same for almost 2 weeks.

April sneak peek

Here is a link to the April Nature calendar. These activities have all come from a book called "Natural Science through the Seasons: 100 easy teaching units" by J. A. Partridge. You can always just follow along with me, I post the nature task daily. I will create links as soon as the pages are posted.

April

1st: Birds to look for this week or soon: Kingfisher, Loon, Flicker, Vesper Sparrow.

2nd: Set up a rain gauge to measure April’s rainfall.

3rd: You may start new willow trees by placing cutting in water.

4th: Make a toy windmill.

5th: Place more shrub branches in water in the classroom.

6th:Build a wren’s home for your backyard.

7th: Which way is the big dipper facing at 8 pm?

8th: Birds to look for this week or soon: Tree Swallow, Winter wren, Sapsucker, Ruby crowned kinglet.

9th: Transplant indoor seedlings when the second leaves appear.

10th: Snakes will soon venture from their winter crevices.

11th: Watch for the first bees in search of nectar.

12th: Watch for new, bright green growth on evergreens.

13th: Search for opening buds of hepaticas.

14th: Visit your garden to discover which shrubs leaf out first.

15th: Start a seedling race by planting such seeds as beans, peas, wheat.

16th: Learn to write the music for a chickadee’s song.

17th: Start a diary of a tree to show its rate of blossoming.

18th: What trees and shrubs have been in blossom already?

19th: Collect and plant seeds of maple, oak and other trees.

20th: Visit a creek to look for yellow marsh marigolds.

21st: A stroll in the woods will show you which trees become active first.

22nd: Why do bulbs on the southern slope of a bulb bed grow fastest?

23rd: What lawn weeds have started growth?

24th: Plant a carrot from the cellar to the garden and observe its second year’s growth.

25th: Collect poplar buds. You will enjoy their odor.

26th: Do scales of lilac, horse chestnut and maple become leaves, or are they shed?

27th: Collect snails, dragonfly nymphs, and other water animals for a pond aquarium for your classroom.

28th: Walk again in the woods, what changes since last week?

29th: Start a diary of a pair of birds from nest building time.

30th: Make and set up a bird bath using a garbage pail cover.

Skunk cabbage

Today's nature calendar task:

The first wildflower - the skunk cabbage - a cousin of the calla lily.

The skunk cabbage likes to grow in wet, swampy places. I haven't seen them around here, but that's not to say they aren't there! They are a very unusual looking plant. They are able to raise the temperature of their surroundings. Apparently they smell bad, releasing a scent to attract flies and other bugs that would be attracted to carrion.

Chipmunks

Today's nature calendar task:

The chipmunk comes forth from his burrow.

We don't usually see chipmunks in our area. We tend to see them on camping trips. I have vague recollections of seeing them at the zoo (just running around, not in cages). We will keep our eyes out when we are there next.

Update: first chipmunk seen on April 9th.

Frog's eggs

Today's nature calendar task:

Look for frog's eggs. Watch a few develop in a jar of pond water.

We are heading to a marsh for a nature walk today. We'll take a look for the frog's eggs. It seems like the snow and ice have just melted.

I found a fabulous website with detailed instructions on how to find and care for frog's eggs and the tadpoles they turn into. Click here.

Mourning cloak butterfly

Today's nature calendar task:

Have you seen the mourning cloak butterfly?

I have seen this butterfly on warm spring days in the forest near our house in past years. Today is going to be rainy, so we will look for them on a different day. We'll probably plant our tomatosphere seeds today, from the March 21st nature task.

The mourning cloak is a neat butterfly, because it overwinters as an adult. It has some type of antifreeze in its body. It crawls behind a piece of bark for the winter. Since it is already an adult, it is one of the first butterflies you can see in the spring.

Tree branches in water

Today's nature calendar task:

Place twigs of cherry, apple or plum in water.

I've been enjoying the forsythia that we put in water from March 5th's nature task. I think I'll have to find a new container for the apple and plum, we're not done watching the forsythia yet!

I've found it very interesting how the flowers and leaves are coming out. First the flowers, then the new branches are forming. Not just one leaf has come out, but a series of leaves along the new branch. I suspect that when the flowers die the leaves will come out along the old growth.

We have a nice litte crab apple tree in the backyard, and some ornamental plums. I'll trim a bit of both and put them in water.

Pruning roses

Today's nature calendar task:

Prune back your roses 6 to 8 inches from the ground.

I have only one rose bush, and it is a climbing rose. The rules for pruning climbing roses are different from normal roses, and are a bit confusing, as it depends on which kind of climbing rose you have, and how often it blooms.

I think this year I will build a trellis for this rose, until now I have been tying it to the railing of our porch.

I pruned my climbing rose. The kids watched and pointed out all the thorns. I took off any smaller side branches, and then trimmed 6 inches off the ends of the remaining branches. It looks good.

Day length chart

Today's nature calendar task:

Add to the table started March 15th. What changes? Sun rises? Sun sets? Length of day? Difference?

Sunrise: 7:17
Sunset: 7:33
Length of day: 12 hours, 15 minutes

I discovered that the day we had exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness was not March 20th, the first day of spring, but March 17th. I don't know why that is. It would be neat to graph the changes in day length.

I also looked at June to see how long the longest day would be. It was 15 hours, 26 minutes. At that time, the day length changes very slowly. From June 16th to the 25th, the day length is the same. Right now the day length is increasing by about 3 minutes a day.

Starting garden seeds

Today's nature calendar task:

Start garden seeds indoors.

We started a few seeds this week.

Last week we went to a gardening show. We picked up some free mystery seeds. I had the dish covered with plastic wrap to keep the soil moist and a bit of white mold started to grow. If you've experienced the white mold, and know what to do about it, please leave me a comment!

We also picked up some free milkweed seeds. I had wanted more milkweed in my garden.

We will plant our tomatosphere seeds this week. There are two packages. One package contains regular tomato seeds, and the other package has seeds that have been exposed to a simulated Mars atmosphere.

I'm still planning what to do with my garden this year. I tried some vegetables last year, but my garden is too small and shady. This year I think I'll try a bog garden. I also want to put in a water feature to attract the birds.

Maple syrup

Today's nature calendar task:

From maple sap to maple sugar.

On Monday we visited a local conservation area that runs a sugar bush. We had a lovely day in the forest, and the sap was running! The kids saw some old ways of making maple syrup, as well as the more modern methods.

Last year it was too cold for the sap to be running on the day we went. Not so this year!

They were heating the maple sap in a log using rocks heated in a fire. You had to use the right type of rock or they could explode! They used sticks to lift the rocks out of the fire and drop them into the sap.

The Chickadee had a sample of maple syrup. She savoured every drop. She licked the bottom of the tiny paper cup. I think she contemplated eating the paper cup, but thought better of it.

Winter sleepers

Today's nature calendar task:

List the winter sleepers that have come out. Raccoon? Chipmunk? Bear? Skunk? Groundhog? Bat?

We think we may have seen a racoon up in the fork of a tree, but it also might have been a cat, it was difficult to get a good look. We thought that the bats were probably still sleeping, since there weren't very many bugs around to eat yet.

The Nuthatch felt that the chipmunk, bear, skunk and groundhog were all still asleep based on the fact that he hasn't seen any of them yet. Those bears will be sleeping a long time if that is how the deduces their hibernation patterns.

Raccoons mate in February, so they are probably awake.

Chipmunks are coming out of their hibernation in March.

Bears come out of their dens in March or April. Apparently they are not true hibernators because they can move around when they are dormant.

Skunks are also not true hibernators. They mate in February and March.

Groundhogs emerge in March. They are one of Canada's largest true hibernators.

Bats hibernate until April or early May.

Bluebird

Today's nature calendar task:

Our orchard friend, the bluebird, settles in the new home.

Our bluebird house has been available for occupation for 5 whole days. No one has moved in yet. Our postage-stamp size backyard is also missing an orchard.

I suspect that a starling will probably move in this spring. We have had starlings nest in several unwanted locations in our house. It will be a lot of fun to watch if any bird moves in to our bird house.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today's nature calendar task:

Learn of the shamrock and St. Patrick.

Not too long ago we read about St. Patrick in Trial and Triumph. The Nuthatch liked the part where his enemies tried to kill him twelve times. We haven't learned about the shamrock yet.

Updates on past nature tasks:

The task for March 14th was to observe how a stream carries and deposits soil. Today we finally got out for a hike to the stream.

When we got to the stream it was easy to show the kids how one side had been eroded, and the other side is where the stream had deposited the dirt from further upstream. The could see where the dirt had been taken away from around the roots of the trees.

We threw some sticks in the water to see how the stream was moving faster on the far side, and slower where we were standing.

Then they threw rocks in the water. A lot of rocks. For a long time.

Then they tried to make a dam, my little beavers.

We found some fossils.

And a hawk.

And the hole from a pileated woodpecker in a cedar tree. It was a lovely day.

Meadowlark

We have been following a calendar of daily nature activities that I found at the blog Holy Experience. For my introductory post please click here.

Today's nature calendar task:

It's time for the Meadowlark.

We looked up the Meadowlark in our bird field guide and talked briefly about the fact that they probably live in a meadow. The next time we read the Burgess Bird book I will pick the chapter that has the Meadowlark. I'm not familiar with this bird, it's not one I have seen often.

Updates on past nature tasks:

Feb 28th: Who will see the first robin? We saw our first robin on March 4th. The kids are still very excited every time we see one. This shot is from our walk today.

March 2nd: Grow a clump of moss in a soup plate. Our moss is growing happily. I knew moss would need a lot of water. I watered it and watered it, but it didn't seem any happier than the moss that was still on the ground in the backyard. Finally it dawned on me that what the moss wanted was humidity. So I covered it with a glass bowl, and now it is starting to grow better. A mini terrarium on my table. I suspect that soon we will have lots of these "projects" around our house.

March 5th: Garden shrubs will bloom quickly indoors in water now. Here are our forsythia branches. Aren't they beautiful! The kids were surprised when the buds opened and yellow flowers appeared. They were expecting leaves. Our 'signs of spring' board from March 3rd is in the background.

March 8th: Get books on attracting birds. We did an internet search. One idea we found was to create a brush pile. All I had on hand was the dead stalks from my flowers that I hadn't trimmed over the winter. It looks a bit like a sloppy beaver or muskrat has moved into our yard. When I start pruning our shrubs I'll build a better brush pile. I suspect the gardening magazines will not be knocking on my door any time soon.

March 13th: Make a home for a bluebird. My husband built me a fabulous bird home and mounted it on the tree in our backyard. Now we just have to wait for a bluebird to move in.

As you can see, we have been having lots of nature fun. This nature calendar has been a wonderful tool. Most of the tasks do not take much time to complete, and it has generated a lot of excitement. We have been doing the tasks for a month now, and we are starting to develop quite a collection of projects to observe. I hope you'll join us in our nature calendar adventure!

Charting day length

Today's nature calendar task:

Record the sunrise, sunset and length of day on the following days: March 15th, March 19th, March 22nd, and March 29th.

Sun rises : 7:30

Sun sets : 7:25

Length of day: 11 hours 54 min

Wow! We have gained 1/2 hour of daylight in the last 8 days. We had daylight savings time last weekend, so the results are a little weird compare to our last recording on March 7th.

A flowing stream

Today's nature calendar task:

Observe how the water in a stream wears, carries and deposits soil.

We have a small conservation area nearby that has a stream that winds back and forth nicely. Sometime this week we will go hiking there and take a look. The weather is warming up, it will be interesting to see how much ice is left at the stream. It will also be running at its highest, with the extra water from the snow melting. I'll post photos of our hike.

Updates on past nature tasks:

We went hiking today with some friends of ours.

The ice is starting to clear off the lake, and the Canada geese have returned. The kids saw lots of geese flying overhead, and there were hundreds at the lake. There is a small beach at the lake and it was covered with goose tracks. Watching for the return of the Canada geese was the nature task for March 9th.

I have been looking for tent caterpillar eggs. Today I found a few leftover webs from last year. I looked around on the branches for the eggs but I did not find any. I'll keep looking. Finding tent caterpillar eggs was the nature task for March 11th.

A home for a bluebird

Today's nature calendar task:

Make a home for a bluebird.

My husband is very handy with tools, so this is right up his alley. I found plans for a birdhouse and passed them on to him. The kids are a bit small to help with this sort of project.

There are a few important points to consider for a bluebird house. They require a certain size hole for the opening. Eastern Bluebirds and Western Bluebirds need different hole sizes. Don't use pressure treated wood, the chemicals are toxic to the birds. This article at the North American Bluebird Society has more information.

Some of the nature tasks only take a minute. This one is a bit more involved. I'll post pictures when we're done.

Red-winged blackbird

Today's nature calendar task:

Watch for the red-winged blackbird swaying on cattails.

We haven't seen (or heard) the red-winged blackbirds yet. We just had a cold spell, but next week is warming up. We'll keep our eyes out for him.

We did have an exciting group of bird visitors to our backyard yesterday. There was a flock of common redpolls. I had never seen a redpoll before. Unfortunately I didn't think to get out my camera until they were gone.

We also took a walk in the forest near our house, something we hadn't done for a while. The damage done by the emerald ash borer was disturbing. Many trees had fallen down because the damage the insects did to their trunks was so severe. We heard the Northern Flicker and a Red breasted Nuthatch on our hike. I was looking for moth cocoons and tent caterpillar eggs but did not find any.

Tent caterpillar eggs

Today's nature calendar task:

Place a twig bearing tent caterpillar eggs in water.

I don't know how to do today's task. I only know what the adult, summer tent caterpillar webs look like. I'm not sure that we have tent caterpillars in our area. This is one of those tasks where you return to the tree that had been covered in tent caterpillars last fall, and look for the eggs.

A few minutes of internet research has turned up a few sites. I should be looking for the eastern tent caterpillar. Wikipedia had a good article, and the University of Kentucky entomology department also has a good article. They have pictures of the egg mass.

So, I'm looking for a black, oval mass around a twig on a wild cherry or a crabapple tree. At this point, I don't think I can identify a wild cherry without its leaves, but I do know where there is an abandoned apple orchard. Perhaps we'll look there today. I wonder if I could find the remnants of one of last year's webs, and look in that area.

One of my summer jobs was at a park that had lots of fall webworms. Tons of people would show up at the visitor centre asking about the tent caterpillars and I would have to explain endlessly that they were actually harmless fall webworms. I wish I had learned more.

I love how these nature calendar tasks lead you in all different directions. It is really expanding my nature knowledge, and I consider myself fairly nature savvy. The kids are also following rabbit trails of their own.

Song sparrow

Today's nature calendar task:

The song sparrow is due.

We haven't seen any song sparrows yet, but it is nice to know what birds we should be looking for at this time of year. The song sparrow has a lovely song, (hence it's name). Listen to the recording at the above link.

The sparrows can be quite tricky to tell apart, since they are all brown and roughly the same size. The song sparrow has a black spot in the middle of his breast (a bow tie!) and his breast has some stripes.

It is helpful to know where to look for birds. I've seen the Song Sparrow in my backyard, and at parks. He likes to be near water.

It is difficult, but very useful, to learn the songs of birds (enature.com has a more comprehensive list). All of a sudden you know what birds are there even though you can't see them. Start with the most common birds. Some birds have a little phrase that goes with their song, for example the Robin says: Cheerily, cheery up, cheerio. Some birds sing their name, like the Chickadee.

Kids can learn the songs too, perhaps even easier than us adults. You probably know a few bird songs already. Pick a few more to add to your repetoire. Listen to recordings, or follow that bird song to find out who is singing on your next nature walk.

Canada geese

Today's nature calendar task:

Watch for the V-shaped flights of Canada geese flying north.

The nature task for February 28th was: "Who will see the first Robin?" When I read that I thought to myself, "It's still February. It's too early for the Robins." On March 4th we saw our first Robin!

We did see the geese flying in a V today. They were making quite a racket.

This photo is from the middle of December when the geese were leaving. Our favorite conservation area has a small lake that was gradually freezing over. They had been sitting on the ice near an open patch of water and were taking off in groups. Only three months later and they are on their way back.

Attracting backyard birds

Today's nature calendar task:

Write to National Parks of Canada, Ottawa, for "Attracting Birds with food and Water" and Bird Houses and their Occupants".

Well, this nature calendar was written in the 1940's, so I'm not sure if the National Parks system of Canada still have these books / pamphlets available. There is no need for them, however, since we have the world at our fingertips thanks to the internet. How to attract birds is a comprehensive site, check out their links too. They have a good section at the end about attracting butterflies as well.

Goldfinch, April 2008

Today's task has me thinking about some changes I could make to our yard. It is already fairly bird friendly, but there are always things you can do. Here are my rambling thoughts on improving our yard:

We have five bird feeders in our yard. Three have black oil sunflower seeds, one has nyger seed for the goldfinches, and we have one suet feeder. Perhaps I could add a peanut feeder, although I suspect it will just feed my resident squirrel population.

A bird bath would also be a nice addition. We used to have a small pond in our yard, and the sound of running water attracted a lot of birds. I had to fill it in when I couldn't supervise the backyard enough with the kids.

Cardinal, May 2008

I have many native asters planted in my yard. This year I didn't get around to cutting them down after they died and I left the dead stalks and flower heads all winter. I actually saw some goldfinches hanging off my asters eating the seeds. It was delightful. I'll do that again next year.

I have one swamp milkweed plant, and I would like to plant more milkweed. I do see monarchs at this plant in the summer.

My garden is sadly lacking in evergreens, which provide cover for the birds in the winter. I have a very small shady yard though, and it is difficult to imagine where I could put one.

Rose breasted grosbeak, May 2008

At one point in the 'How to attract birds' article they mention using splashes of colour to attract birds. Do large brightly coloured plastic ride on toys count?

We don't have any bird houses in our yard, that would be another interesting project.

I also need to think again about the bay window in my yard. We have had a number of birds collide with the glass. Last year a black and white warbler died from crashing into that window.

The article mentioned having a brush pile, which is something I hadn't thought of. It is an easy and inexpensive way to create more bird habitat.

Anyways, those are just a few thoughts from the top of my head. I think I'll have the kids help me create a brush pile right away. The other ideas will get incorporated into my garden plans for this summer.

Sun rise, sun set

Banff, April 2008

Today's nature calendar task:

Record: Sun rises ____ am. Sun sets _____ pm. Length of day _____ hrs _____ min.

We recorded our sun rise, sun set info today. Sun rise: 6:44 am. Sun set: 6: 15 pm. Length of day: 11 hours 30 min.

I used our local weather website to get this information.

On February 19th we had recorded this same set of information for that day's nature calendar task. Sun rise: 7:10. Sun set: 5:53. Length of day: 10 hours 43 min.

It was fascinating to see that in only 16 days we had an extra 45 minutes of daylight! Daylight savings time is tomorrow. Our next date for recording sun rise, sun set data is on March 15th. It will be interesting to see how the Nuthatch will try to understand what happened. Today he was definitely trying to figure out how the day could be longer!

A long time ago we did a simple experiment that showed how the length of the day changes. It used an orange, a pencil, and a flashlight. I think we found it in the book "What makes day and night" from the Let's Read and Find out about Science series. I think I'll check it out from the library again.

Nature Calendar

I'm going to try something new on my blog. I found a wonderful nature calendar over at Holy Experience. We have been doing the little activities every day for the past few weeks and have been enjoying them immensely. They don't take very long to do, and we are learning alot. I'm going to try and do a series of short posts about the daily nature activities we have done from this calendar.

The nature calendar is from a book called "Natural Science Through the Seasons: 100 Teaching Units" by J.A. Partridge. It is an older book, published in 1946 and is out of print. I looked around on the internet and could not find a copy. My library system had only one copy stored away in a back room that I could look at but not take out of the library. I looked at it and it was a great book. Hopefully I'll stumble upon a copy one day. Ann at Holy Experience has taken photos of the calendar pages in her book and posted them on her site. I printed out a copy of March's nature calendar from her blog.

Anyways, today's task was: Watch for moths coming out of cocoons.

I have never found a moth cocoon. I thought this was an interesting task. I did find two websites about moth cocoons though, here and here.

We did not see any moths coming out of cocoons today, but we were out in the backyard making mudpies, filling our birdfeeders, and looking at some moss we have in a dish (it was a task from another day).

I'm going to link future entries at the bottom of this post so you can follow along with us if you like!

March

7th: Sun rise Sun set Length of day

8th: Get books on attracting birds and birdhouses.

9th: Watch for canada geese flying north.

10th: The song sparrow is due.

11th: Place a twig with tent caterpillar eggs in water.

12th: Watch for the red winged blackbird.

13th: Make a home for a bluebird.

14th: Observe how the water in a stream wears, carries and deposits soil.

15th: Sunrise Sunset Length of day

16th: It’s time for the meadowlark.

17th: Learn of the shamrock and St. Patrick.

18th: Our orchard friend the bluebird, settles in their new home.

19th: List the winter sleepers that have come out. Raccoon? Chimpmunk? Bat? Bear? Skunk?

20th: From maple sap to maple sugar.

21st: Start garden seeds indoors.

22nd: Sunrise Sunset Length of day

23rd: Prune roses 6 to 8 inches from the ground.

24th: Place twigs of cherry, apple or plum in water.

25th: Have you seen the mourning cloak butterfly?

26th: Look for frog’s eggs.Watch a few develop in a jar of water.

27th: The chipmunk comes forth from his burrow.

28th: The first wildflower, the skunk-cabbage, is a cousin of the calla lily.

29th: Sunrise Sunset Length of day

30th: Be sure you water your garden seedlings.

31st: Look for robin, killdeer, grackle, cowbird, heron, brown creeper, phoebe.