I saw an adolescent woodpecker at the suet feeder yesterday. He seemed not quite sure of what he needed to do to get at the suet (our feeder has metal plates with small holes in them so a bird needs to poke its beak into a hole to get the suet out).
I’m so envious that you can just go outside and see baby alligators!!
They are cute at that stage. But every once in a while, you can go outside and see Mama Alligator! She’s not so cute.
Wow. Seeing alligators in the wild, in ditches alongside of roads, was to me more amazing than seeing the VAB and other sights at NASA Kennedy Space Center. I mean, we see images of the space hardware all the time, so finally getting to see it in person isn’t that big a deal. Seeing actual alligators nearby was quite the jolt!
I’ve been watching this tiny spider for a while. It is in the carapace of a pitcher plant. A couple of days ago it had caught a fly that is much larger than the spider. This morning I happened to have camera in hand when a very fat little spider emerged with the remains of the fly in hand (claw) and went to the edge of it’s plant and dropped it off. Then returned to it’s lair.
I love all the tiny stories of mini-drama y’all are including!
For the first time this year, today I saw early purple orchids. I checked the wiki and it seems these are not native to the US, so here are a couple of pics and some details:
These are usually the first orchid I will see during the course of the year. It really feels like the year is warming up now. They were on a south-facing bank where they grow each year. I counted four spikes - in a good year the bank will have fifty or more, but it’s still early in their season, so we’ll see.
Less interesting in the greater scheme of things but just as interesting for me, there are literally scores of common spotted orchid plants in our front lawn this year - perhaps as many as a hundred. They appeared a couple of years ago, just invited themselves in, and they are thriving. So far, all you can see are the little rosettes of leaves, but fingers crossed, in a month this could be spectacular.
Another first for the year today - the first wild garlic flowers are appearing.
j
I’m in Arcadia Florida today, where it seems that Sandhill Cranes have the right of way:
On my lunch break, watching the robins. One walked up to a grape hyacinth, pecked experimentally at the flowers, then stalked off, unimpressed.
Cool picture, blondebear! We see the cranes frequently here in Gainesville. There are a pair that live near my workplace and mosey through the parking lot like they own the joint.
On last week’s bike rides we saw the first goslings of the year.
Somewhat less pleasantly, after each of our 2 rides, I found TICKS on me! Not cool!
The hummingbirds are back!
We’ve got our feeders out, but I imagine it will still be a few more days…
Me too - what a hell of a thing to be ninja’d on!
I had been planning to compile a week’s highlights, just as an experiment, but as goslings are now out there…
Thrus (22 Apr) - my first goslings of the year. This year I have a mental resolution to keep gosling spotting, because last year, for the first time, I saw them being kindergartened (so to speak). All of the goslings of the local geese - maybe 30 of them - had been gathered together and had protective adults stationed around them. Is this a regular thing with geese?
Fri - digging my raised beds in the afternoon I heard a crunch-crunch-crunch in the rhododendron hedge to the left, and a fox emerged at the end of it and trotted across the yard, around the house and out of sight. They’re getting very bold…
Sat - walking along the boardwalk on Shoreham beach we saw (separately) two lizards. In England, in a cold April for chrissakes - astonishing. I can’t even remember the last time I say a lizard here (excepting slow worms). According to the kingfisher board* they were wall lizards.
Sun - first ducklings of the year, a group of ten (!)
Mon - having a coffee in the kitchen at 9.15 AM, a fox sauntered past the door. It went to the end of the garden wall and exited into the front garden. I was expecting it to cross the road into some wooded land, but it turned up the road and trotted along the sidewalk until it got quite close to a pedestrian and scooted off down a cul-de-sac. I think the relationship between us and the foxes is now this: they know they’ve got humans, but they’re willing to tolerate them.
j
* - household term. Nature reserve information boards invariably claim (with ridiculous optimism) that one of the species you might see is the kingfisher. Hence, kingfisher board.
At the Flamingo Marina in Everglades National Park, an American Crocodile:
Oh, cool. You don’t see those guys very often.
Very much the same around us. They barely even pay attention when we are walking our dog.
Of course, it doesn’t help that our neighbor feeds them! 
The day before yesterday, I saw the largest living thing on Earth: the General Sherman tree, in Sequoia National Park.
The massive trees in the park are breathtaking. They make you feel like you’re a bug in a primeval forest, gazing up at the tree-mountains.
It also started to snow while we were in the Giant Forest. Seeing the colossal fox-red tree trunks through drifting snowflakes is an experience that will stay with me a long time.
At one point, we pulled to the side of the road so I could touch an unprotected tree. I expected the bark to feel hard, like marble, or like stiff leather. Instead, you can tell that the bark is as light as styrofoam, except its structure is layered and flaky rather than foamy.
I also saw Douglas’s squirrel (immortalized in Sally Carrighar’s book One Day On Beetle Rock as “the chickaree”) for the first time. It’s a smallish, brownish tree squirrel with slight tufts on its ears. Also saw many Stellar’s jays and jaywalking deer.
There is a very young rabbit living in the bushes down the street from my house. We caught him having a romp the other day.
Majestic pose:
Having a romp:
Crazy bun! 