04.09.07 FAIRY SIGN

Our search for signs of Spring on our Easter walk also turned up this beloved flower. Looking like fairy laundry hanging in the sun, it is named "Dutchman's Breeches" or Dicentra cucullaria. Its seeds are gathered like Easter eggs by ants who eat the tasty flesh attached to each seed. Then forgotten by the ants, the seeds sprout in the fertile detritus of the ant colony to increase the population of spring flowers along our mountain stream.

03.20.07 AMPHIBIAN FECUNDITY

I have been examining the water in the ditches along the road daily hoping to see some eggs of our neighbor frogs, toads, and salamanders. After several days of freezing weather, we have a day of warm sunshine. The first day of SPRING! And there they are, a huge mass of eggs. The entire group is the size of a large grapefruit. Could these have all come out of one individual? Perhaps they were much smaller when they were originally laid? I place a couple of spoonfuls in a jar hoping to watch the appearance of tadpoles.