The three hares - May 1

What: The month of green! I had meant to get this up a couple of days ago, but didn't have a chance. The snow has melted and our woods and lawns now have a greenish tint to them! So exciting. The powerlines still seem a bit drab, but there's lots of fiddleheads from cinnamon, interrupted, and sensitive fern coming up in the area and the sumac buds are bursting (they're the straight sticks in the foreground). Phragmites (the light brown reeds along the brook) shoots are erupting.

Phenology notes from previous month:

• Osprey nesting
• Woodcocks "peent"ing
• Spring ephemerals coming up (e.g. bloodroot, hepatica, spring beauty)
• Grass greening
• First dandelions coming up
• Spring migrants arrive in droves, big flush still to come
• Colder species of amphibians singing in full force (toads, treefrogs, bullfrogs still to make their full debut)
• First leaves appearing in understory
• Maples starting to leaf out
• Sapsuckers returning, as second flush of sap starts flow (as non-maple species start to get sap flowing)
• Woodchucks are out and about
• First warm nights
• First 70 degree weather
• Fireflies out and about, not mating yet
• Shorts and t-shirts abound!
• Snow and ice has all melted
• Dawn chorus is louder and louder (starting around 5am with robins then chickadees then cardinals then song sparrows, at least near my house).