April has been anything but predictable this year. In Madison, it was the rainiest April on record, with nearly 7 inches of rain. Across Wisconsin, 25 confirmed tornadoes touched down, matching the state’s annual average in a single month. Some communities were even pelted with baseball-sized hail! It’s been an intense start to the season, to say the least.
And yet, despite the chaos in the skies, nature’s calendar keeps turning. Pasque flowers have bloomed in the prairies, American robins are busy building their nests, and the chorus of spring peepers fills the evening air.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to join me on a tour to see what else is happening outside!
Shagbark hickory leaves forming
One of my favorite signs of spring is finding this odd plant structure (pictured above) when out on a hike. At first glance, it looks like a flower with large, pinkish petals. In reality, it’s a newly opened bud from a Shagbark hickory tree. As the bud bursts apart, it reveals tender leaflets unfurling and stretching outward, ready to soak up the season’s first steady sunlight.
Hickories are a valuable native tree that provide an important food source for wildlife, including squirrels and deer. Their distinctive “shaggy” bark also creates natural crevices that offer roosting sites for bats seeking daytime shelter.
Cinnamon fern emerges from the ground
If you head outside right now, you might also notice ferns beginning to emerge. These fuzzy fiddleheads don’t quite resemble the familiar fern just yet, but in time they will unfurl into their full form. In early spring, some species—like the Cinnamon fern pictured above—produce a woolly, protective covering on their young fronds that helps insulate them against cold snaps. To me, they look almost ghostly or a bit ominous at first glance, but they always bring a sense of joy when I come across them in the wild.
Yellow-bellied sapsucker holes
While maple tapping season may be winding down for us, that won’t stop the Yellow-bellied sapsucker from doing what it does best. These unique woodpeckers drill neat rows of “sap wells” into birches, maples, and hickories, allowing the trees to ooze sap. The sapsucker then returns to these sites to feed on both the sap itself and the insects that become trapped in the sticky flow.
Other wildlife also takes advantage of this easy energy source. Hummingbirds, squirrels, and even bats have all been observed feeding at sap wells, especially during the early spring when other food sources are still limited.
Devil’s urn fungus
Lastly, I’ll leave you with a rather eerie fungus I came across the other day at Patrick Marsh (pictured above). I could try to describe it in more detail, but its name, Devil’s urn, does a pretty good job on its own.
Despite appearing to sprout from the soil, the Devil’s urn is actually feeding on decaying buried hardwood roots and logs. In doing so, it plays an important role in breaking down dead organic material and recycling nutrients back into the forest.
It should come as no surprise that this fungus is not edible, so you may have to leave the Devil’s urn in the woods and settle for some deviled eggs instead.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this month’s virtual tour of nature as it’s happening. See you next month!