I happened upon a BUNCH of ducks in our pond yesterday ….a raft or team of ducks, apparently. They are only called a flock while in flight. I didn’t even see them and FOUR of them flew away. As I approached more, TWO MORE flew away. That makes SIX DUCKS in the pond at the same time, not fighting. Today I scared away four ducks, two at a time. And by scare away I mean simply walk down the steps….these are real ‘fraidy ducks. I think they have become that way because of the growth of the shrubs around the pond…their potential emergency exit isn’t what it used to be. I used to be careful not to get too close but so far this year I couldn’t even walk into the yard without scaring them away. Too bad for them!
Trillium seedlings starting to come up! I think these are from sowings about 4-6 years ago – the one patch showing up has seedlings from two different years. One of this patch had three leaves last year, and at least three of them now look like they are fairly mature looking as they poke up. They typically take 7 years to flower from seed, but can be as soon as 5 depending on the conditions. Exposing seeds to warm conditions early can cause this, maybe it happened naturally. Last year there only a few trillium flowers, maybe they didn’t like those early warm springs we’ve had, so maybe not so good for the flowering as it is for forcing the seedling. And almost no seeds, only the Trillium Chloropetalum produced seeds last year, which will not appear until next year (if they do). Trilliums take two years to appear above ground.
ellensgarden.us 