Squirrels and Morels

The other day I saw a black squirrel. I assumed it was a melanistic gray, but it was much smaller more to the size of a red squirrel. has anyone ever heard of a black red squirrel? Can the red squirrel produce black offspring? If you have any thoughts or particular knowledge of this situation please let us know.

On another subject the morels are in full swing. After this evening's rain I expect there will be more. Here are two sites that not only feature morels but also have a bit more on phenology at the same time.  Thanks to Patrick Harvey for these sites.

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=82256&subForumID=245489&p=2&commentPage=
 
http://www.morels.com/boards/


Hope you are finding your fair share.
 

A spring walk

This is my first attempt at blogging. Please bear with me. I want to use the space to write about the things that are happening in the north woods. I hope you will take the time to share with us your own observations. It would be a good place to ask questions or answer them. We can share our knowledge and educate each other as we move through the year. Currently there are some brand new flowers beginning to bloom. Goldthread, a small, white, five petaled, flower with scalloped leaves is blooming under the pines. The starflowers are blooming again. They are white as well, but have seven petals which is a bit unusual. The other flower just starting to bloom is gaywings or fringed polygala. Small magenta flowers growing close to the ground are the identifying characteristic. The ferns are past the fiddlehead stage and now exhibit some of the more mature signs of adult ferns. The interrupted ferns are just that, interrupted. The fronds are bright green with a dark green sori about 2/3 of the way up. The bead ferns are unrolling and the stems are bright red. The ostrich ferns are up and nearly fully unrolled. Their sori will appear in June as a separate structure. The sori reminds me of a rough feather.