Phenology for April 28, 2014

Phenology is the study of natural phenomena, which is still done largely by people logging or blogging about what we've seen outdoors today. Whole books have been published this way although even Richard Adams' didn't sell terribly well. Blogs that include phenology as well as other topics seem to do better, though, so after some thought I've decided to move my phenology notes from Blogspot to BubbleWS.

Observed today:

Weather: Rain off and on, beginning with a noisy thunderstorm at 7:00 this morning.

Birds: Crows, sparrows, robins, cardinals. 

Flowers: Redbud and dogwood, past their peaks. Yellow flowers, frost-nipped but still abundant: dandelions, daffodils, buttercups, celandine and other wild mustards. Bidens, of course. Violets--in my neighborhood the white and pale blue ones are blooming more abundantly than the violet-colored ones. 

Insects: Two species of Skipper butterflies, Spring Azures, a Fritillary, a few Cabbage White. Some flies and mosquitoes. Several wasps and bees.

(Cardinal courtesy of Mensatic at Morguefile.com.)