lilacs

first snow

The first snow this season was just a dusting to make things look a bit like winter in Minnesota.  It placed little white caps on the black chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa fruits still hanging on the shrubs, and on all the various seedheads we left standing for the birds to enjoy all winter.

January - winter buds

Bayberry Myrica pensylvanica

On winter days like these . . .  

cold and windy . . .  

it may look like the trees in the 

wild wild woods are bare, 

but when I take a closer look . . . 

Black Chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa

Viburnum (left), Forsythia (above), Lilac (below)

These deciduous trees and shrubs actually formed buds last summer during their active growing season.  To survive the cold of winter they have gone dormant.

But next spring's burgeoning leaves and flowers are already in place, so the trees won't need to use energy now to grow those complex leaf and flower structures. 

 
 

migrants

Migrating birds stopped at the edge of the wild wild woods this week.  On Friday, one Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata hopped around among the finches below the seed feeder.  On Saturday and Sunday, several more appeared.  A flock of 30 or so have been sharing the suet with our resident finches and sparrows. 
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-rumped_warbler/lifehistory these warblers are able to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland, because they can digest the waxes found in bayberries.  There are some bayberry bushes around here, but this is the first time we've hosted traveling Yellow-rumped Warblers. 

blooming trees and shrubs

 Larch, magnolia, maple, and pussywillow display their springtime beauty.

Larch Larix laricina branch with green needle tufts and female flowers

Magnolia flower buds ready to open

Maple tree blossoms

French Pussywillow Salix capria

burning bush blooms

The "Burning Bush" Euonymus alatus is in bloom. In summer, when all green, its easy to forget how spectacular this shrub is -- pinky red leaves in autumn, then lovely tiny flower clusters in spring.

dogwood

The Cardinal Dogwoods have been a vibrant show all winter against the white snow. With warmer weather the bark will turn golden and green leaves will appear.

burning bush

One of the brightest autumn jewels on the edge of the wild woods -- "burning bush" Euonymus alatus.

the battle for black chokeberries

A group of Eastern Bluebirds Sialia Sialis, darted in and out of the Black Chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa bushes. Surmising these bluebirds might be the two broods that fledged out of our nestbox this summer plus the adults, we smiled and watched as they flew around at the edge of the woods. Then, as the bluebirds moved off towards the cattails, a flock of Cedar Waxwings Bombycilla cedrorum appeared and settled in to savor the black leathery chokeberries. Their grey and buff coloring might help them go unnoticed, but their yellow tail-tips were bright accents among the burnished chokeberry leaves.

summer sumac

There is sumac growing outside my window that turns to burnished red and gold shades in the autumn. These shrubs seem to be leftovers from before the residential lots were here. Based on the property plat, they are growing along what was the old farm fence row. And, like sumac do, they strive each season to expand their position. I have enjoyed their brilliant autumn colors for a few years, but this summer is the first time I paid attention to them as they bloomed.
Another treat for us, compliments of our wild woods!