Mother Nature played a small April Fools’ Day joke today when I found a coating of new snow coating the ground. I would have appreciated a nice treat of wildflower blooming instead of the snow, even if they were white wildflowers like these bloodroots. Its name comes from bright red color of the sap when the stem is cut.
A Better White Coat
Some of the rivers are flowing with white although not white foam, but chunks of ice instead. And at times they cause an ice jam which causes even more flooding, but in a few months the scene will look different.
Summer High Flow
It felt more like winter than spring today and I bet the returning birds were wondering why they came back. Although the spring birds were not singing very much, some of the winter birds were, like the cardinals who seemed to enjoy the cold sunshine.
Cardinal Singing
This sunken ship on Lake Superior with bone like fingers sticking up out of the water reminds me of my yard after winter storms brought down trees and now there limbs poking up through the snow but the rest of the tree remains under the snow.
Lake Superior Shipwreck
Yesterday’s warmer temperature finally stopped my roof mini-waterfalls since the last of the snow melted off my roof, but of course there is still plenty of that white stuff still covering my lawn. And the spring flow over waterfalls make them flow heavier than in the late fall.
Slow Flow at Two Steps
The temperature outside finally got above 50 but with only a few patches of ground showing in my yard, there were no signs of dandelions blooming or even leaves sprouting up. So I couldn’t give my mom her yellow birthday flowers this year.
No Dandelions
The deep snow depth this winter was hard on the critters trying to forage for grass so the deer were grazing a lot on my pine trees but hopefully now that some ground is exposed they can find something better to eat.
Pine Snack
The robins were adding their voice to the bird choir along with the rest of the winter birds who seemed happy the sun was out and not snowing. Lofty voices were heard up high in the sky but I wasn’t able to spot the sandhill cranes as they flew overhead. With their large wingspan, cranes can ride the air thermals and they can stay aloft for many hours with only occasional flapping of their wings.
Sandhill Crane
I spotted these “creatures” in the road ditch. I didn’t know if they look more like soldiers in camouflage, cavemen in woolly mammoth coats or some other scary creature hiding along the road. But these creatures will eventually melt like the wicked witch of the west, whenever the sunshine can penetrate their pine needle coats.
Camouflage Creatures
There were a few more signs of spring today with the return of the red-winged blackbirds, some killdeers and the call of sandhill cranes. A few small patches of green popped in the woods too with moss emerging from the snow.
Green Moss
