Despite the heavy snow, spring is just around the corner. Yesterday, April 5th, I saw my first butterflies. A mourning cloak and several gray commas were seen flitting about. The commas are small and what I noticed was a flash of orange and black as they flew. These are the early species along with the Compton's and Milbert's tortoiseshells. They over-winter as adults hiding in woodpiles and crevises in the bark of trees. It is usually on the first day the temperature climbs above 50 degrees F. that they emerge. With little to eat they can be seen on the old holes created by the yellow-bellied sapsuckers drinking tree sap.
Besides the butterflies, large brown bats are out. According to Pam Perry, a non game wildlife specialist with the DNR in Brainerd, these are the most cold tolerant of the local bats and are likely the first ones out in the spring. While visiting Pam and her husband Ken, we walked along the Mississippi River in Brainerd where we saw these bats, several species of ducks, grebes, canada geese, and a great blue heron. At their home just south of town there were juncos, wild turkeys, redpolls, pine siskins, and the usual species of feeder visitors.
Last Friday I stopped to visit the classrooms of Crosby-Ironton grade school. Jeff Sipper and Jean Simmons are fifth grade teachers participating in the phenology plus program. As we walked around the school grounds we found the first dandelions in bloom, many species of insects were active, and we examined several species of trees to get a starting point on their spring development. We also found hepatica plants though there were no signs of flower buds as yet. Stay tuned as we measure the advance of spring from the Brainerd area to Crosby-Ironton to Hill City, Grand Rapids, Bovey, and Virginia.