Wood frogs are raising a ruckus in the pond near Read Miller's orchard

The spiders are alive again. The orb spider that I saw glittered with rainbow colors with the afternoon sun showering light on it.

4-2

Today's great thermals and mild breezes added up to perfect raptor migration conditions. The sky was full of mile-high birds: red-tailed hawks, re-shouldered, goshawks, Coopers, sharp-shinned, peregrine, kestrel, northern harrier and the first osprey I've seen this spring.

Several days ago (late March) I crossed an enormous spotted salamander on Miller Road and also a Jefferson's. Last night there were two male woodcocks in the orchard across from Gladis Miller.
Matthew Hoffman

I heard peepers as I was driving home last night just where Upper Dummerston Rd meets Route 30 on the Dummerston end of Upper Dummerston Rd. Seems way too early, but so nice to hear.

Yesterday I went to the vernal pool on the East-West Road (just east of Black Mt. Road) and I was a little perturbed. There were no egg masses for wood frogs or salamanders. I saw only 5 wood frogs. Usually the pond is filled with them It seems that migration of salamanders should have occurred since there were several days it was warm and rainy. The pool itself is filled with algae and another brown substance which I can't identify. I'll keep my eye on the pool.

4-1 Bloodroot is in flower! And, as a bonus, tree swallows appeared over my field for the first time this spring. I also saw a kestrel moving north, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker was around the yard all day. All this to a chorus of wood frogs and peepers, the sweet scent of red maples in flower and dry warm weather!! Life is good! John

Yesterday I watched a red squirrel repeatedly zipping out to the tiniest of red maple twigs and nibbling on the flowers. Gathering sap? Smelling the 'roses'?

Pat

While we were walking into the house last night, a barred owl called out. It was so loud that we were taken aback. Then we heard another owl answering--in that booming chattering conversation. During late March to early May barred owls are laying their eggs.
Red maple trees are starting to flower. They have beautiful red flowers with yellow in the middle. Another sign of spring.

Despite the cold temps over the weekend and now the rain, signs of spring abound. The male goldfinches are turning yellow, there are large flocks of male robins, purple finches at the feeder, and I listened to the woodcock on his "dance floor" yesterday evening. Crocus are just waiting for a little sun as well as the New Hampshire Gold forsythia to burst into color. Sweet pussywillow are emerging.
Karen
March 30

On the afternoon of 3-19 while I was enjoying the 65 degree weather and watching raptors drift north up the West River valley, 3 Black Vultures circled directly overhead. Black vultures are still a relative rarity in VT although for the past 2 years one or two have routinely been identified among the Turkey vultures which congregate at the Retreat Meadows.
John Anderson
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Last night Cliff and I went out on the East-West Road in Dummerston at 8:30 - 9:30.
During that time we helped 6 Jefferson Salamanders and 3 wood frogs across the road. We found 1 dead salamander. The traffic at that time was still heavy.

I was out in the woods with Joe Wright and his son Joe Wright Junior,south of Carpenter Rd., in Guilford. The land was quite wet, and we saw many signs of wildlife. In a Hemlock stand, there was a deer kill, probably by a coyote. There were huge tasks hair.
Not far from there hemlock tree was completely denuded of its branches. There was a concentric circle of hemlock branches on the ground, surrounding the hemlock tree. We wondered, what had caused that and then noticed the porcupine scat,and just two porcupine tracks. We did find turkey scratchings on in all its blow down tree. there were several red cedar trees that were more than 12 inches in diameter. That's quite unusual for Windham County.

Cliff, my husband, honked as he left for work. He called out "There's scat in the driveway," and I ran out to look (before it was smooshed). Sure enough it was fox scat, this time it was full of berries. So, where did he get berries from this time of year?

Today I was in the woods near Dwight Miller's Orchards in Dummerston and found quite a bit of fox scat. When I took apart one scat, I could see the spine of a small mammal, perhaps a mouse.
Mary Ellen Copeland in Dummerston saw a chipmunk, which means they are no longer hibernating. They do come out to explore during the winter on very sunny days, but only briefly. They are one of five hibernating mammals: jumping mouse, bats, woodchuck, and bear.
Other sightings of Mary Ellen include a red squirrel,gray squirrel, mourning dove and a crow.

Signs of spring are abundant. My neighbor Cheryl, who also lives on Partridge Road, saw two good robins this morning. We looked out the window and glanced at a least five deer prancing through the air. It didn't seem like anything was following them, but they had enough energy from food they had eaten. It was a joy to watch them and I could feel it in my body. I had been tracking those deer most of the winter and had seen where they had slept in many different places. Now I've finally seen them with my own two eyes. I have found small scat and could now see the little ones.

In Colorado we saw what thunderstorm clouds look like. They are like very large cotton balls.
There are mushrooms growing here at Gordy and Tina's house which is basically in the desert.

Walking along the trail to our neighbors pond I saw my first Indian pipes. They are a saprophyte which means they get their food from decaying organic material.

Yesterday, I could see the fresh colors of the turkey feather wood fungi. They were putting on new growth and they had a bluish tinge. I heard the call of the scarlet tanager, "chick bur," but I couldn't see it. It had been raining most of the morning, and interestingly enough most of the birds were calling instead of singing.
I found the remains of a white mushroom, usually a sign that it is poisonous, broken into three parts.