Towheeblog

Many small things evident now. American Goldfinches number at least a dozen in our garden now, second only to the persiskins who persist. Today I saw my first colorful butterflies of the year–one small brown one, one small blue. Yesterday I noted my first outdoor spider with a web. Earlier this week I saw my first water strider of the year in Clark Creek. Two Vaux’s Swifts passed over our house, their swept-back wings and jerky flight starkly different from the more elegant swerving arcs of the various swallows now back in our skies. Looking for earthworms to populate two planters, I find even under rocks or logs they are difficult to get. As the top of the topsoil dries out they move deeper. I did find a few without having to dig as I would in another month or so.

We seem to have two Bewick’s Wren nests nearby–one was singing behind our house, another twenty yards in front of it…at about the same time.

Many willows now are sending out their floating, fuzzy seeds. It is a sample of what the air will be like when the cottonwoods hit their stride with zillions of floating fuzz balls.