BlizzardNole

I saw on WTOP that some people in an old neighborhood with mature trees took shovelfuls of dirt and counted the nymphs, and came up with an estimate of 1 million cicadas PER ACRE. That is gonna be crazy. We'll visit family in Calvert a couple times to get away from the noise.

Probably that. Being young makes the side effects stronger due to your stronger immune system. We have older relatives that had no effects at all from shot 2. Keep us updated!

Height off the ground is fine -- one of mine is 12 feet up. Is it your first year putting them out? It took a while for them to discover my feeders the first year, but they became regular after that. Just make sure you keep the nectar fresh and they'll come around.

Today was perfect for heavy garden work including tilling and getting a bunch of plants in. Overcast all afternoon but no rain, about 70, and enough of a breeze to keep the gnats out of my eyeballs. Looks like some showers later this evening which will be nice.

Next weekend is looking troughy. Chilly Mothers' Day?

I usually get my first hummingbirds the last week of April but this year I saw one on April 12 and now have several hanging around. I am always happy when they arrive.

I've been complaining with some others on the gardening forum about huge maple trees in our yard with billions of spinners loaded in their arsenals. Well the wind has stripped them of the spinners in a day and even swept our deck clean. Free of charge.

In the 1980s in Calvert, we were in the mid-90s one day in April and had snow squalls that whitened the grass four days later. Our HS had a group of exchange students from Sicily at the time and they thought it was nuts.

It's was funny seeing everywhere 80-84 at noon already but DCA at just 75 with a breeze off that chilly river. Edit: DCA caught up quick though.

We are looking south too in about 5 years. We are just done with 6 months of dead bare trees every year. It's way too long of a dead season with very little snow anyway. Gardening notes -- got the potted fuchsias and impatiens already going on the deck with the long range looking pretty safe for no frosts or freezes. The hummingbirds have already found them. This weekend I will get an early start on planting the beds with tropical milkweed, lantana and annual vinca. Deer and rabbits need not apply -- nothing here for them.

Sun is blazing here right now. I'd like mostly cloudy today to keep the temps reasonable.

I have gotten to really hate maples. I planted three "Autumn Blaze" in our back yard in 2002 since our back deck faces the broiling WSW. I read they were medium sized and don't seed. WRONG. They are 40-50 feet and make billions of spinners. They are so covered with them now that they look like late November brownish foliage. Ugly. Probably won't be leafed out for four more weeks. I'm surprised my neighbors haven't complained.

Nice soaking rain at 0.6 and as someone said, perfect timing! We're going to Calvert to visit my parents today so I am glad the rain wasn't 12 hours later.

Nasty day at 46 degrees and rushing wind. Watch us approach 90 next Wednesday Oh and trees -- we have three maples in the back with billions of spinners, and a gigantic thornless honeylocust street tree that someone thought was a good idea with a front yard that's less than 20 feet wide. That thing will soon drop tons of tiny flowering junk that accumulates everywhere and turns into a mud-like mess when it rains. Then in fall it's billions of tiny leaves get everywhere and into everything. Wish I addressed it when we first moved in and it was small, and made it look like an "accident."

No kidding it has been great! Now up to 15 straight days of 60-plus for highs at DCA, and 26 out of the last 29 going back into March. Best spring I can remember in a long time.

Here is one of my gaskets to stop leaks and keep them wasps away

You also need a good ant moat. I got this glass one of Etsy that works really well. This feeder is on a hook right outside my window. Sometimes yellow finches will drink out of that ant moat!

C'mon over to the lawn/garden thread. Cool and wet at 55. Broke the string of 60s-plus

@FXW176 Here is the hummingbird feeder I like to use (sorry so big -- can't figure out how to shrink the image). I like the square one -- it glows red when the sun shines through it. Make nectar using 4 parts water to one part white cane sugar. Do not add coloring or anything else. This feeder does well with about 12 oz. in it. One thing -- they do tend to leak where the bottom fits together. I make gaskets out of thin foam sheets from a craft store (or Amazon) using the metal piece as a template. I use an exacto type knife and make the gaskets about 1/4". When you put the halves together, it stops any leaks. Please, please change feeders regularly if you put them up! I see people leave them out for two weeks and the nectar gets gross. That can harm or kill a hummingbird. 12 oz can go 5-7 days in cool weather like now, especially in the shade. In hot summer weather, change no more than every 3 days. I keep 2 up and rotate 2 more through so I can let them get clean and dry.

Ha that was funny H2O! It will be interesting how it goes in our neighborhood. In 2004, the large development was relatively new with the houses built between 1994 and 1998. Most trees were pretty small, but there are woods on the edges and MAN it was loud coming from there. Now 17 years later we are getting a canopy. We'll see how many laid eggs on those smaller trees back then. On another note -- anyone get those annoying annual cicadas each year? The past couple of summers just a few of those darn things have made it unpleasant to sit on the deck. Damn things screech all day.

Here is a lucky shot where I got a female hummingbird and a hummingbird moth

Here's one I snapped in flight last summer

Another nice spring day on tap. Just saw DCA has been 60 or above 20 out of the last 22 days with 10 days above 70. GREAT spring so far, and looking at a long string of highs in the 60s coming up. I even saw a hummingbird at the feeder this morning, which is about 10-15 days early compared to past years.

Thunderstorm was pretty intense here a couple hours ago, and there were so many white petals mixed in from a huge flowering tree that it looked like a snow squall. I don't have my gauge up yet but that had to be about 1.0-1.5 in about a half hour. A few good lightning strikes too.

Yeah this is too warm too soon. Dulles at 83 and DCA at 82. I like the next seven days with all 60s and low 70s. That's more like it!