First Offical Day of Spring!!

Spring is here! Officially!! Warm sunshine thawing the earth, flower blossoms unfolding into a tapestry of color, lacy green creeping over brown branches, chorus frogs chirping in the fields, melodious bird songs filling the morning air.... Watching spring unfold is so exciting. Granted, spring brings with it often changing weather as well: rain, sun, hail, tornadoes, warmth, cold... but that's all part of spring. Right now birds are carefully selecting building materials for their nests and defending their territories. Soon baby birds will be chirping for food.

Red maple

Magnolia bush

Apricot tree

  I went for a short walk in our yard this afternoon. Rustling in the leaves near me caught my attention and I paused. After scanning the forest floor, I spotted movement and watched as the leaves were pushed up and grass swayed. I followed the winding trail of pushed up leaves with my eyes and finally glimpsed a flash of grey fur. I continued to observe until I saw the secretive shrew foraging for food under the damp leaves... a second... and he was once again hidden from my sight. From its color and location I'd guess it was a Southern Short-tailed shrew. Our cat unfortunately catches many of them.

Short-tailed shrew are primarily carnivorous. They eat spiders, centipedes, earthworms, and insects. They may eat some vegetation as well, but usually they are  not a threat to gardens. Because of their high metabolism, they have to eat as much as three times their weight in food per day. Interestingly they are the only mammal in North America that produces a salivary toxin that is secreted from a duct at the base of the incisors. This powerful toxin, much like snake venom, is injected into the bite wounds of its prey to kill them.

Southern Short-tailed shrew

This little shrew was rescued from our cat and I kept it a few hours to observe it. After spending several minutes just sitting in a "corner" of the glass bowl it was in, it started rummaging around and pushing up the leaves I had placed inside. Deciding it may be hungry, I went out to the yard to find a worm. As soon as I placed the unfortunate worm into the bowl, the shrew was on top of it and valiantly fought with it until with one bite, the worm was severed in half. As soon as it had finished it's meal, it went back to searching for more. Though it was fun to watch the little creature for a while, I knew I had to let it go, so I took a few pictures, then took it outside where it belonged.


"Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm" ~ John Muir

"The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between the two is sometimes as great as a month." ~ Henry Van Dyke