This Spring, in addition to bluebirds nesting in one of their boxes, there are two pair of ducks and a pair of sandhill cranes nesting along the ponds out back. I’ve seen the ducks take flight on my walks. The cranes have strategically placed their nest in an area that is now impassable due to multiple trees falling across the human and deer path. I approached the area last week and heard an unidentified distress call. After the walk I youtubed “sandhill crane distress call” and it matched what I heard.

The big lilac bushes have not fared as well as their feathered friends. What buds the frost didn’t take, heat and drought decimated. Enough bloomed to put their scent in the air. The dwarf lilacs should open sometime this week. A morning thunderstorm blasted the blossoms from the redbud branches. The Asiatic Lily plants are still intact with the…