Skunk cabbage and frogs are true signs of spring for me also.
A couple of nights ago the frogs were deafening at our place. All of us sat outside for about an hour and listened to their chorus. I am sure they were singing the promise of spring.
I watch for the skunk cabbage bloom. It signals it is also time for me to watch for the hatch of the alder flies on the lower Skagit River and the downstream migration of the searun cutthroat trout. It is a timing thing but if one can get it right when the little black flies are hatching and the cutthroat are feeding you can have some of the best dry fly fishing found anywhere on the planet.
I couldn’t let this pass without telling you what a strange plant the skunk cabbage is. It belongs to a group of plants that are “thermogenic” which means that they generate heat. They are pollenated by flies. They attract the flies by releasing some very smelly chemicals (hence the name). In order to get these chemicals volatile, they heat up to 10 to 20 degrees above the air temperature. There are tropical varieties that are some of the largest flowers known and you are able to smell them a mile off.
PM me your snail mail addy. I may have a little something to help with the small black fly situation, maybe a little something for the BWO situation as well.
The peepers, the sound of summer nights… Warm air and Sunshine is ahead, this year I’m wanting to add some camp fires , and yes maybe, a brookie for dinner, maybe…
I used to hear the peepers herald in the spring but sadly development out my way has taken that sound away forever as of two years ago. We had a loan peeper in our backyard two seasons ago, calling for a mate but I don’t think he was successful. I never saw that type of tadpole in our little pond nor did I hear any last spring. I get lots of toads though.
I thought that I was the only one who had a secret love affair with this wonderful, first plant of spring. The streams in Connecticut would hardly have loosened the ice, when skunk cabbage would begin to appear by the thousands along the sodden banks. Our skunk cabbage was an unworldly, dark purple streaked with green. I’ve missed the stuff since I’ve moved to South Carolina. I guess I remain a Connecticut Yankee down deep. I miss those endless stone walls too. 8T
Saw my first skunk cabbage bloom today. I will attempt to get a pic tomorrow. Seems a bit early to me. Time to start looking at the lower river for cutthroat activity in between trips to the upper river for steelhead.
Saw lots of skunk cabbage pushing out of teh ground yesterday on the Grand River in the Island Nation. I should have taken some pics, but it looks like this one. Its stage is like the last picture in this article.