Jon Crispin's Notebook

This is an amazing year for the Mountain Laurel.  Some years it barely flowers, and some years it is nice but nothing special.  This is the best I have seen it in a very long time.  The woods are alive with it.  In fact, this whole Spring/Early Summer has been interesting.  Everything is flowering like crazy, and we have had 2 black bears in the past few days.  On Thursday a smallish youngster and yesterday morning its mother.  She was huge and looking to come up on the deck to have a go at the bird feeders.  I was bummed to have to bring them inside.  The hummingbirds have been draining their feeder every few days and I had just started to see the rose breasted grosbeaks.  Oh well, I’ll still try to hang them during the day and hope for the best.