Summer already?

What summer like weather we have been having here in Ohio. Today was hot. Driving home from work was comparable to sitting in a blast furnace. I had all my windows down and the thermometer on the dashboard read 90 degrees. I think the official high of the day was in the low 80's. The calendar still tells me it is spring, but it certainly felt like summer today. Except the mosquitoes are still absent, making my evening hike to Kenney Park that much more pleasant. I searched for the blue-gray gnatcacther nest I photographed only 3 days before but I completely bonked. I couldn't find it. I kept looking for the box-elder tree but just never found the right one. I did relocate the hairy woodpecker nest. And the American cardinal nest. All seem to be doing well, and the peeps from the woodpecker nest seem to be getting stronger. Another sign of summer was the ethereal song of the wood thrush. This bird, related to American Robin, was calling throughout the park tonight. Along the river bank I tried my luck with the fishing pole, made several hundred casts, but only managed to hook what was probably a small rock bass before he jumped off my line. Oh well. The trees along the riverbank, most noticeably the silver maple, have leafed out. Sure, the leaves will get bigger, but they are no longer naked. Even the riverside cottonwoods, giants with diameters of three and four feet, have leaves. It really looks like summer. I'm starting to find pieces of the Olentangy river that I remembered from last summer when Megan and I first moved to north Columbus. A gravel bar or riffle here, a stone there, all hidden by high water from me until tonight's walk. Megan is off dining with the midwives of Columbus, so I had the night to explore. I'm tired, and if you checked out the times of my blog posts from this morning, you might be able to guess why.

Spring is wrapping up.......get out and see stuff before the mosquitoes beat you to it.

Tom