Wood thrush-yes! Bloodroot--not

Tree Swallow taken at Braddock Bay Hawkwatch

The first wood thrush have arrived by my cabin, and the first ovenbirds.  I head the sweet songs on Monday evening, the day before a long stretch of rain inundated the mountain.  The rain stopped late last evening, but I still feel I’m living in a bog.  The ground squishes underfoot and puddles are everywhere. And since I’m living on the side of a mountain, you can guess how bad it is in a valley or on flat land.  Those areas are flooded; houses are sometimes on little islands, like castles with a moat.

But this afternoon the fog has lifted and for the first time in days the sun is out and the day is warm.  The streams will recede and the island houses will revert to houses with lawns in another day or two.  I hope the break in bad weather continues for a while.  Outside chores are piling up around my cabin, and my list of them gets longer every day—move the chicken pen, clean up extraneous junk that somehow has appeared, clean the gutters, trim back the fast-growing underbrush.  I need more than a few sunny weekend days to even make a dent in the list.

I am also starting to think that for the first time in years I won’t have bloodroot at the cabin.  The little flowers haven't appeared yet, and at this point in the season I suspect they won't at all.  I watch the patch where they grow anxiously but see no sign of them.  The area hasn’t been disturbed at all, so I have no obvious explanation for why they haven’t appeared.  Now that I have wild violet in the woods, I’m thinking I won’t have the bloodroot at all this year.  At least, I hope it’s only this year that they don’t appear.  I’ve gotten used to these one-day wonders, and I hate to think it may well be another full year before I can see them again at the cabin.