Rain gauge

Today’s nature calendar task:

Set up a rain gauge to measure April's rainfall.

We didn't manage to make our rain gauge today. I think I will use a canning jar and put a ruler on the side. I'll need to find a spot in the backyard where the branches from the trees won't be over top of it. It doesn't matter so much just yet since the leaves aren't out, but later on it will. Perhaps we can record our rainfall on the calendar.

Updates from past nature tasks:

March 28th, the skunk cabbage

I have been searching high and low for this flower. I knew it would probably grow somewhere swampy. On our first hike we did not find it at a conservation area we like to visit that had some nice swampy areas.

Then I went online and searched my area for known places that this flower exists. I found two sites, and off we went.

The first place we tried we could not find it. We hiked the trail twice (it was short). We did see a Golden-crowned kinglet though. They are a very tiny bird, they arrive early in the migration season.

Finally, at the second place we found it!

It really is an unusual plant. It is supposed to smell bad, but I did not smell anything. The leaves are just starting to come out. There was a cluster of about four of them in this spot. It might be easier to find them earlier in March, if there was still snow on the ground. They are able to raise the temperature of their surroundings and melt the snow around them.

They are a good size flower. With all the brown leaf litter they were not easy to spot.

Of course, once I had seen one of them I started to realize that they were all over the place. Later in the summer this section will be covered with tall grasses.

There are probably at least 10 plants in this photo. Look for the dark red triangles.