There has been significant rainfall across much of the Southeast this month, as well as more-or-less steadily increasing temperatures. It’s spring already, and the weather has brought myriad changes to the ecosystems of my neck of the woods. One of the first of these changes that I noticed was the sudden appearance of the early spring frogs; upland chorus frogs and spring peepers seem to be everywhere in this part of northeastern Mississippi.
All sorts of trees are beginning to bloom. The most obvious ones, in both urban and semi-rural areas, would have to be the Bradford or Callery pears (Pyrus calleryana), with their profusions of medium-sized white flowers. These trees originated in China and Vietnam, but have a long history of cultivation. Even though they are invasive, I have to admit that they tend to have a nice shape, and the bright blossoms catch the eye in the predominately gray-brown landscapes of late February.
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| Callery pear |
Winged elms (Ulmus alata) are other early bloomers. In fact, it seems that most of the elms in my neighborhood have already moved past the blooming stage and into the fruiting one. Elm fruits are known as samaras, which means that they are dry, winged, and do not naturally split open along “seams” in the manner of, say, hickory nuts or walnuts. Maples produce samaras, too; theirs are the familiar propeller-shaped fruits that spiral down to the ground later in the season. The elm samaras in the photo are oval, notched at one end, and edged with short “hairs,” or pubescence.
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| Elm fruit |
While there are plenty of trees and shrubs with fuchsia-colored flowers, the eastern redbud (
Cercis canadensis) is one of the relatively few native ones in this part of the world. White redbuds exist—cultivated from the related western redbud—but I much prefer the striking purple-pink of the wild ones. Redbuds are understory trees, rarely attaining heights of more than 30 feet.
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| The redbud tree is just a little above the center of the picture. Look at those fuchsia flowers! |
Obviously, herbaceous plants (that is, those lacking woody tissue) also bloom this time of year. Native wildflowers such as wild garlic, eastern spring beauty, bluet, clover, henbit, and many others can be found on lawns and in fields right now.
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| wild garlic (Allium ursinum) |
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| spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) |
Certain colorful cultivated plants, such as daffodils, are hard to miss! These particular ones grow near the driveway, under the shade of oak trees.
These warm, sunny days bring out lizards, like this basking Carolina anole.
Hawks and vultures come out, too. This Red-tailed Hawk—a juvenile, its tail brown with horizontal bars rather than solid red—flew from its perch after spotting me as I was strolling down the driveway.
The Turkey Vultures often soar in small groups, taking advantage of the rising warm air. These two look like random punctuation on a bright blue page of sky.
Hawks, owls, and vultures will be nesting in this part of Mississippi very soon, if they’re not already doing so. Most of our breeding birds nest a bit later in the season, though, and many of them have yet to arrive from their wintering grounds in the tropics. The Eastern Phoebes, however, stay here year-round, and have begun to build a mud-and-moss nest atop old, unused mud dauber nests in the garage. This looks a little precarious to me, but maybe the nest will stay in place for the duration of the breeding season.
Within another month or so, the phoebes will likely be joined in the garage by Carolina Wrens, constructing their domed straw nests in the nooks and crannies. Mockingbirds and thrashers, which are already singing to defend their territories, will build their messy twig nests in the privet shrubs. Choruses of green, Cope’s gray, and squirrel treefrogs will replace the spring peepers and upland chorus frogs in the moist woodlands. The wild places are in a state of rapid transition right now. Don’t miss it.
