Spring, sort of

This is going to be a pretty uninvolved year for gardening. My preliminary exam is around midsummer, so before then I'm studying and after then I'm out in the field.

I've been watching the migrant birds and feeding them their tasty treats like the beneficent Seed Lady that I am. Have spotted in the back yard a yellow-shafted flicker (stayed for nearly a week, and was very cute pecking at the annoying April snow), chipping sparrows, a song sparrow, a brown thrasher (which flung mulch every which way for about an hour), and a blue and white parakeet. The collared doves are back and I think they're nesting in a spruce tree a couple of houses away. Their call is very distinctively dovey though markedly different from mourning dove or pigeon. I've also seen a collared dove single out a mourning dove and shoo it away from the feeder. Aggressive European birds = not a good thing. Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal are adorable when they feed each other, and the goldfinches have their breeding plumage back.

I apparently planted some things last fall because odd leaves are coming up all over the garden. Can't wait to find out what they are! My species tulips look lovely as always, but the daffodils are pretty sad. I don't know if they're underfertilized or if the unusual patterns of warm and cold this winter threw them off.

Need to go shopping for a tree for Jazzy soon.