This is a post that I started last Friday (8 days ago) that never got finished.
Greetings and welcome!
Spring is here a month early thanks to our very warm ElNino winter. Things are picking up now.
First up the ATV trails have opened yesterday. Normally they open about the first weekend in May. The county went by conditions and opened early. The county highways that allow ATVs open My 1st, but they made an exception and opened them too.
We have had some very warm days and the insect world is alive and well. I haven’t seen a wood tick yet but I got bothered by my first mosquito a few days ago.
Last night I heard the first spring peeper frogs. A lot of the small wetlands that we went past had them. Vreep!!
The trees and foliage are about a month ahead of normal. I usually expect to see leaves starting on trees and the understory starting to get green about the first week in May. I see where my maple is getting first leaves. Cottonwoods are getting the first hazy leaves, and I have seen catkins on some trees.
I took a shortcut/longcut home Wednesday night and hit some forest roads. Normally the frost-out mud would have that unthinkable until about early May. I did hit some soft spots but nothing too threatening. I did see some off-road stuff that would challenge a nice truck, but the gravel roads are just coming into season.
Some years the lakes and rivers are still pretty frozen up. Some years we are not sure if the ice will be off of the lakes in time for the opening of sport fishing the first weekend in May. This year the lakes have been clear for weeks or even a month.
I expect that the early warming of the water will advance the various spawning seasons. I saw on FaceBook that walleyes are already staging up at the mouth of the river in Peshtigo. I’d expect that the bass and panfish seasons will likewise be advanced.
Someone asked if it is ok to turn off the heater in the well house and to use water in the camper. I would wait a week. If you have to roll the dice you will probably be ok. Our climatology has our average low riht now at 30 and the possibility of nights as cold as 15. My rule is if it will be over 40 in the daytime it can handle low to mid-20s at night. That is for an enclosed well house I’d be a little tighter with exposed plumbing.
The local greenhouses are ahead of schedule too. I see one is opening April 25th. My rule is I don’t plant stuff until June 10th, and I have been frost bit a few times. Is this year different? Sure, but even above normal years can have below normal stretches. I’ve seen years where the frogs in the pond are really going and the leaves are coming out on the trees and here comes a big snowstorm and a couple of days of winter.
One last topic.. gypsy moths. A few days ago I went out to check for egg masses. Oh boy are we in for a bad year with them. They really had a big party planned for my big oaks. I probably saw about 100 egg masses near my big oaks. At 500 eggs a piece that is like 50,000 catepillars. Even if it is only half of that it adds up to a lot of leaf munchers.
If you own a lot of land and can get in on some aerial BT spraying I would do that. You will want to get on it too, they will be hatching any day now.
More to follow-
RJB