Top Photo: Upper surface of American snout.

Things happen very quickly in spring, flowers bloom and fade, plants shoot out new leaves, insects emerge, birds who’ve been absent half a year, reappear. Here’s some of those things and more of what has occurred over the past week.

Daffodils are early season flowers that last but briefly. Bees emerge with little on their agenda but food and reproduction. It’s time to get a new nest started.

Northern, or Dekay’s brown snakes, which can been seen throughout the winter, are more active in spring.

Butterfly weed (Asclepia tuberosa) gets ready for another season.

Trilliums are spring ephemerals which are only seen during a brief period in early spring. They grow in the garden next to the Butterfly House.

Dragonfly nymphs who have spent the past few seasons in the water as aquatic insects, crawl out on land and seek out a vertical object to cling to in order to morph into adult dragonflies.

Local birds and migrant stopovers are arriving from winter quarters. Swallows, catbirds, green herons, white-eyed vireos, and I’m told a scarlet tanager, among others were spotted on campus this past week.

And, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that turtles, painteds, musk, snappers, and sliders, who’ve been underground in nests dug by their mothers for the last six or seven months are now emerging. They can show up anywhere on campus, so keep alert.

As of this writing I’m aware of ten hatchling turtles (7 sliders and 3 painteds) found on the pathways of the museum. If ten is the number observed and reported, imagine how many of the little turtles go unreported or unseen.

We generally place them in the wetlands when we happen upon one of the little herps.

And, over in the deeper water among the established population of aquatic turtles, basking perches are at a premium.

Things happen quickly in spring. Get outside as often as you can so you don’t miss a bit of it.