Migration season

Two new yard birds in the last few days: a trio of brown-headed cowbirds, and an adorable little ruby-crowned kinglet. Also, a pair of sparrows that I can't quite identify but I think they're new. They refuse to turn to face me no matter how much I snap my fingers and say "Hey! Look over here!"

I hope the cowbirds were just passing through. I'd be sad to discover that brood parasites have taken up residence in the neighborhood.

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Am very amused to browse my Sitemeter hits and discover a large number of people finding this blog by searching for "live flowers". I suppose it would be very disappointing to search for plain old "flowers" and find photos of dead ones by accident.

Second sign of spring

Territorial calls from the mourning doves before sunrise this morning.

No more signs of the chickadee, even though I did fill the feeder. We got more snow so no snowdrops yet.

First signs of spring

Today: the season's first territorial calls from the cardinals. Hooray!

Yesterday: the first chickadee I've seen in the neighborhood since around 2001 (if my notes are correct). The West Nile outbreak hit them and the crows particularly hard, but the crows rebounded with a vengeance. I'm so happy to see a chickadee again after all this time.
The solid ice that covers our yard is slowly melting. I hope to see snowdrops as soon as it's gone.

American basswood

This tree isn't growing in my garden, unless you define my garden very broadly, but I wanted to post a picture so people can see what I study for a living. Tilia americana, the American basswood or linden, grows in mesic forests throughout the eastern half of North America. The range may or may not be further divided into multiple species, but in any classification scheme the northern populations are T. americana. Lucy Braun said that the Minnesota populations are the most "pure", untainted by introgression from other tilias. I don't know about that, but the trees in Minnesota forests were immense and beautiful.


Tilia americana, photo from Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, Minnesota

My dissertation will focus on phylogeny and population genetics of the North American Tilia taxa. Past "splitty" taxonomists found upwards of 20 species, but recent treatments lump them all together as one. I hope that my molecular data will be the tiebreaker. The over-under is 3. Who's in?

Asters

Borrowed from the bintlog: a picture I took today of Aster oolentangiensis, the sky-blue aster, in my garden.


Another native of Illinois, this prairie plant is a prodigious reseeder. I find new volunteers every year and relocate them to other parts of the garden. Like most of my plants, they are very tippy, and when they fall over onto the lawn or into the garden they look like drifts of pale blue snow. Next year I will try to remember to cut some of them back to see if I can make them more stocky.