Looking for signs of spring

Now that we’re back in Ann Arbor we are looking for signs of spring. Here that would be plants and insects as birds are still lagging compared to what we saw in the south. A couple of days ago we decided to go to Dexter Huron Metropark where spring ephemerals (plants) typically appear quite early in the season.

Cut-leaf toothwort were up and a few were even starting to flower.

Hedge bindweed (I believe) was up but not yet flowering.

Yellow trout lily leaves were abundant. In a few weeks their flowers will carpet the parks along the Huron River.

Greater waterleaf leaves were up but not yet flowering.

Southern spring beauty, also called Virginia spring beauty was in bloom.

The real prize was harbinger-of-spring, not only were they flowering, but they were abundant, in fact we found more thay we had ever seen before.

To have a better idea of the small size of harbinger-of-spring here’s Susan photographing some.

Here’s one of my photos of one. Somehow these little beauties just make me smile

More later…