It's mid-April, and the seasonal sprint toward summer has begun in earnest. Each day, more migratory birds arrive (or depart), flowers bloom, and the remaining ice melts away.
This week, John Latimer compared our current conditions to last year's particularly early spring. Here are some of his findings:
- Trembling aspens in flower: April 12, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Red maples in flower: April 12, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Hazel brush: Just beginning to flower on April 15, 2024, at peak flower on April 15, 2025
- Rhubarb emerging: April 14, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Tamaracks with green buds: April 8, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Tree Swallows present: April 15, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Pagoda dogwood with open buds: April 15, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Nannyberry with open buds: April 15, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Frogs singing: April 15, 2024, not yet in 2025
- Birches with open buds: April 15, 2024, not yet in 2025
In John's phenology report for this week, you can also learn about an oddball fern he discovered in Cohasset, his observations of local wolves, and the birds painting John's deck purple with their poo.
Topics
- Introduction (0:00-0:25)
- Notes from 2024 (0:25-4:46)
- Early emerging ostrich fern (4:46-5:57)
- Purple Finches and bird feeder birds (5:57-7:01)
- Butterflies (7:01-7:35)
- Tamarack, hazels, and honeysuckles (7:35-8:38)
- Ice and waterfowl (8:38-9:37)
- Cottongrass flowering (9:37-10:25)
- Trail cam wolves (10:25-12:11)
- Northern Flickers, Ring-necked Ducks, Yellow-rumped Warblers (12:11-13:03)
- Forsythia, maple, elderberry, alder, hazel flowering (13:03-15:12)
- Conclusion (15:12-15:51)
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, <b>subscribe</b> to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
