The early spring migrants are here, the bloodroot and hepatica are blooming, and it's time to think about different tasks. The garlic mustard will be tall enough to pull in a few weeks, but not this coming Saturday. We still need to remove some logs that were too big for us to handle during the last few workdays, but they may not be cut up by CPD's Forestry crews before this Saturday because of all the rain we've had. So that may have to wait another 2 weeks also.

But we have the path outside the fence to renew, some pruning to do, and we need to start botanizing and documenting what flora we have currently. We need to check the status of many buffalo boxes, particularly one that we'll need to use to increase the size of the tiny pond at the west end of the "Grotto", to see what works and what doesn't. We can't entirely shift our focus from cutting brush, because now is a good time to find buckthorn, as it leafs out earlier that our native shrubs. We need to monitor the iris in the marsh and decide when it's time to start working on that in anticipation of the major planting that we'll be doing there in June.

We still have more seeds to plant, so we'll be busy. But with the beautiful weather that's forecast, we should also have an opportunity to watch and listen to some of those migrant birds that have started spending time with our resident birds at the Jarvis Sanctuary.