Whatisit?

I saw this plant in a book I rented from the library but, of course, I took it the book back before the plant spontaneously sprouted from the ground. I just love its heart shaped leaves and tinner cupped flowers. I just can not remember what it is or if its something that I should allow to grow. 

So.... What is it? Should I keep it or pull it? Does anyone know?

Developing a sense of place

Sense of place: to know of a place as one's own or the "human capacity for the homing sentiment," to quote Abbey. 

Our yard has been full of surprises as spring takes hold and works her magic. Reminding me how much fun it is to learn about a new place. Like any new friendship, I look forward to all it has to tell me.

I learn that the Gambel Oak is one of the last to put on its new leaves. At first, I miss the leaves and wait daily for the change it would make to our yard but then the birds arrived and I was sad no longer. The naked branches of the Oaks gave me plenty of views as birds twitter through their leafless branches.  

New Gambel Oak buds finally start to form and break open

 I am pleasantly in shock by the number of mysterious bushes and trees in the "Gambel Oak forest" in the backyard. What I thought was a mono-culture of Gambel Oak has is full of other plant species. Some of which I find in the open spaces surrounding my neighborhood. Are they natural? Do the birds and animals use them? Are they invasive? All these questions ramble through my head like loose marbles on a playground. For, I dont want to own my yard I want to be a good steward over it. I want to blend into the environment that surrounds us; to be a part of, not in.

The photos below are of one of the first bushes in my yard to leaf and bloom.  I have no idea what it is. The bushes are interspersed through our forest, their early spring blooms and bright green leafs are a welcome sight as I watch the changes spring brings. By July the bushes, will be filled with Robins who love the red fruit/seeds that cover it. The bushes are so prolific, that our decks and rocks surrounding the yard will be marked red with its juices.

The wildlife has been exciting too. The birds are everywhere! Black-headed Grosbeaks, Yellow Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, one Green-tailed Towhee, Black chinned hummingbirds, and many Lazuli Buntings are mixed in with the regulars in my yard but we also see herds of deer wander through and the shy squirrels are fun to watch.  Of course, its no surprise that I love the birds and wildlife. Each time I look out a window, I feel the opportunity to see something exciting and new is there but this excitement is amplified when my kids feel that way too. And they do. This love of place is felt throughout, I realize as Casi runs into our room excited about what she just saw from her window.

The Lazili Bunting's are very skittish and I could not get a clear photo through a window. One day I will figure out how to utilize my spotting scope with my digital camera. 

Last night as I started thinking about bed,  Nate suggests we go for a walk in Dimple Dell. We hurriedly put on shoes and coats then head out the door. We wander along the trails that weave through the open space until we reach a small lake. With the setting sun as backdrop we watch the lake and listen; to the the red-winged black birds watery song, the swallows chatter, kids somewhere laughing, a flock of Canada geese fly overhead, a fox silently sits and watches as we walk by, a pair of accipiters fly by silhouetted by the sunset, and Tanner calling to Nate "swing me". I stuff my hands into my pockets and think "we are home".

God gives all men all earth to love,

But since man’s heart is small,

Ordains for each one spot shall prove

Belovèd over all.

—Rudyard Kipling, from “Sussex”

Vernal Equinox

"cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up"

Today I woke to the songs of Robin. It was still dark outside. Two hours before dawn. At my home, the American Robin is always first in the dawn chorus. As I sat there listing to the robins song I was reminded of a friend. A friend of birding and spring time.

Beth and I sat one morning, in our car just outside of Jordan River Parkway. We were waiting for dawn and a few hours of birding before work. As we sat there talking, we heard the American Robin's song. We paused our talk and listened. Its song melodiously interrupting the silence of night. After the robin was silent, she informed me that the American Robin song is always the first heard in the dawn chorus. She then spoke of a study regarding the sequence of morning bird song and why one bird will predictably sing before the other. After a brief google, I found one scientific paper describing such a study.

"The concentration of avian song at first light (i.e. the dawn chorus) is widely appreciated, but has an enigmatic functional significance. One widely accepted explanation is that birds are active at dawn, but light levels are not yet adequate for foraging. In forest communities, the onset to singing should thus be predictable from the species' foraging strata, which is ultimately related to ambient light level. To test this, we collected data from a tropical forest of Ecuador involving 57 species from 27 families of birds. Time of first song was a repeatable, species-specific trait, and the majority of resident birds, including non-passerines, sang in the dawn chorus. For passerine birds, foraging height was the best predictor of time of first song, with canopy birds singing earlier than birds foraging closer to the forest floor. A weak and opposite result was observed for non-passerines. For passerine birds, eye size also predicted time of first song, with larger eyed birds singing earlier, after controlling for body mass, taxonomic group and foraging height. This is the first comparative study of the dawn chorus in the Neotropics, and it provides the first evidence for foraging strata as the primary determinant of scheduling participation in the dawn chorus of birds."

I found it strange to read what I interpret as art, music, and emotion described through the eyes of a scientist. Although, from the first sentence of this abstract, I feel the authors also struggled to remove themselves from the emotional feelings they have regarding the songs of birds.

"The concentration of avian song at first light is widely appreciated, but has an enigmatic functional significance." The definition of appreciate is to grasp the nature, worth, quality, or significance of something and the definition of enigmatic is to resemble an enigma, perplexing, and mysterious. I think these words perfectly describe the value of the robins song and what I felt this morning as I drank my coffee and listened.

"cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up"

So after all that, what I really want to say is happy spring!
Now go out and plant some peas in celebration!