Holy Cow!  A Great Blue Heron landed out in the middle of our farm field.  A few minutes later, a second heron joined it.  The only thing I can come up with is maybe they are hunting mice.  They are not limited to just eating fish as most would assume.  In addition to fish they eat mice, snakes, frogs, and really anything they can catch and swallow.  It was such a treat seeing them on our land.  It makes me want to make my wetland that I have been dreaming of building for the longest time….

While taking a hike today, we had come across a large patch of Dutchman’s-breeches.  It wasn’t until I got home and sat down and looked at my pictures from the day, I realized that this picture amongst the others was definitely not Dutchman’s breeches. After a look at my flower book I learned that this is actually Squirrel-corn.

In preparation for planting our garden in a several weeks, I had the kids start some seeds inside with some peat moss discs.  They each picked our a squash and a melon.  I put the flat inside a tabletop greenhouse that I have and they should be ready to plant in no time.

While taking a hike today, we came across this Bloodroot plant.  It’s a nice early spring flower that gets its name from its red-orange sap.  Bloodroot has several medicinal properties and the Native Americans used this plant for body paint and tye as well as for its medicinal purposes.

The two Bluebirds have each laid claim to a Bluebird box and the third has been taken over by the Tree Swallows.  The nest seen here is that of the tree swallows which is made up of small sticks.  It’s also fun to just sit out and watch as the more dominant tree swallows bully the House Sparrows out of their territory.  We have even seen them scare them away from the boxes that the Bluebirds have started nesting in.