Spring species

Good weather has continued with just a couple of rainy days the last two weeks. Temperatures by mid-day have been up in the mid-teens (Celsius). Signs of life are beginning. Buds are pricking the trees. And after a winter hiatus, I’ve got the Seek app out again, identifying what new plants and animals I can.

I’ve started a new student group meeting on Thursday afternoons. We are using Seek as well as other resources to go around identifying what species we can find. On rainy days (of which we haven’t had any so far), we will research some of the species we’ve found and discover which are related to one another. These are still early days. Only a handful of plants are up yet. Still, the spirit of exploration is upon us.

Since my dad introduced me to the Seek app and the iNaturalist website last year, I’ve been having so much fun learning the names of the plants (and, increasingly, animals) living around me. Having names for them helps me distinguish one from another. When I can recognize them by name without having to consult my phone, then I feel like I know something. It’s helping me feel more connected to this place where I live.

Here are just a few of the new finds:

When we returned to Norway after Christmas, we set up this new bird feeder. Within a few days, birds started coming, devouring the sunflower seeds that I almost could not refill fast enough. As spring has come on, the birds empty the feeder much more slowly. Here, you can see a male (right) and female (flying, left) bullfinch. I think the female was seeing her reflection in the window and acting defensively. The bullfinches are some of my favorite bird visitors–the bright red of the male’s breast is so beautiful.

On the beach this past Thursday, the students and I found a number of these small jellyfish. They were floating in small pools in the sand left behind after the tide. This one was hovering over the threads of some unidentifiable algae. The jellyfish were perhaps an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Seek identified these to the genus level as “moon jellies,” but I don’t feel very confident in that. I’ve posted this image to iNaturalist to see if someone is able to give me a more confident identification.

In our neighbor’s garden, among blousy daffodils, I came across this beautiful little flower: *Scilla luciliae*, commonly called by the remarkable name, “Bossier’s glory-of-the-snow.” I saw only one. It sounds like these are probably garden plants, bulbs that were planted at some point in the past. They are apparently native to Turkey.

More species will be coming as the spring progresses. Just in the last few days, leaf buds have been appearing on the trees. When we get rain again, I expect they will burst out.

I’m considering moving away from short stories for a while, or at least trying to get back to the novel I was working on last year. I want to be working on something I feel deeply inspired by. That said, I have a few short story drafts I still want to complete. We’ll see just where I go.

Best wishes for the coming weeks,
Jimmy