NATIVE PUSSY WILLOW

A CRISP, GLORIOUS MORNING

NATIVE PUSSY WILLOW ON HWY, 13 

WILLOW FOWERS IN BLOOM BUT NOT YET AT ANTHESIS

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  26 degrees F at the ferry dock, 21 on the back porch.  Wind WNW, calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 84%.  The barometer is falling, now at 30.27". It is a crisp, glorious morning.
   Yesterday's Tree Board Meeting was spirited.  Among other things, we determined that we would take a principled, albeit moderate stand, on the destruction of the old white pines on Hwy. 13.  We will use the incident as a wedge to elicit a more positive attitude toward trees and related environmental issues that mutually affect the Chequamegon Bay communities, so that we can present a united front on such issues, and with the ultimate goal of creating a multi-commnity urban forestry committee or board, and possibly a shared position of urban forester.
   This morning we will head to Madison for the regularly scheduled meeting of the Urban Forestry Council, which will continue its discussion of the biennial Wisconsin state budget as it affects urban forestry issues, and other business.
   From Madison we will head to Denver to visit our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren during their spring break.  On the way we will stop off in Kearney, Nebraska, to witness the annual sandhill crane migration, one of the world's greatest bird migration scenes.  The birds stop to rest and feed on and near the Platte River near Kearney, on their way from their wintering grounds in Texas and Louisiana to Canada, Alaska and Siberia.  Hundred of thousands of these majestic birds have congregated there for ages.  When we lived in Nebraska we went to see them every spring and it will be good to do so again after skipping several years.
   On the way back we will take our usual route through the Nebraska Sandhills, one of the most unique landscapes of North America, and weather and roads permitting will stop at some of the wildlife areas along the Loupe, the Dismal and the Niobrara Rivers.
   Posts will be a bit sporadic for the next ten days or so as we travel.
   Yesterday I saw this native pussy willow, Salix discolor,  blooming along Hwy. 13, just south of Bayfield.  The bud scales have fallen, and the flowers are expanding but are not yet at anthesis, when they will be yellow with pollen.