My cat enjoyed the couple of warm days we had since he could go outside and watch for chipmunks. I am amazed at the patience he has for that when he has no patience if I’m late getting his food or opening the door. Sitting around a hole in the ice waiting for a fish to bite or watching a hole waiting for a chipmunk to appear must be a male thing and is the only time males have patience, but then at least they are out of the female’s hair for a while.
Chipmunk Watch
And while most of the snow is gone in my area, there is still snow farther north but some signs of spring is coming there too with the ice leaving the frozen rivers as many of the waterfalls along Lake Superior on the Minnesota shoreline opened up yesterday and started flowing again.
I haven’t made the trek in the spring to walk on snowy trails to the waterfalls as I figure I would slip and fall in so my views of them are when they don’t have as much water flowing and no ice chucks floating by.
Dry Gooseberry Falls
Abundant snowfall did allow my pond to fill up this spring with the melting snow and there are a few snow drifts left to remind us of the long winter. But the tree swallows have arrived today and I saw a butterfly too, although no frogs singing the spring chorus yet nor any tadpoles swimming in the pond. Just a few water beetles swimming in the cold pond water. Update : heard a couple of frogs late this afternoon for a few minutes in the warmest part of the day.
Refilled Pond
The dang groundhog sure was wrong when spring would arrive and missed the mark by more than a month. The more accurate weather predicting rodent is the chipmunk since he doesn’t pop his head out of his tunnels until temperature warms up and the snow is melting. And with the deep snow pack this winter, he even was able to find an acorn that the squirrels didn’t find.
Weather Predicting Chipmunk
Dry creek beds and little streams increase their size and look larger when the snow melts. And always good when the snow melts slowly so flooding doesn’t occur, even if many of us want all the snow gone right now. My little pond has filled up and is overflowing so maybe when the ice melts off the top, I will get some visiting ducks.
Winter River
Hint of spring is in the air, at least the singing of returning birds can be heard, like the red-winged blackbirds, killdeers, robins and the sweet sound of the Eastern Bluebird.
Soon, when the female bluebirds arrive, the male will put on a display at the nesting boxes. He will bring nesting materials, usually dry grass, into the nest and then perches on top waving his wings. And that is about his only contribution to the nest building as the female does the nest building and incubating the eggs. But I have seen the female reject the male’s nest choice and he has to go house hunting some more.
Return of the Bluebirds
Finally with some warmer temperatures this week, the snow is beginning to melt and maybe we will be done with winter sunsets for a while. But then we had a blizzard in May last year so probably will have a few more yet.
Winter Sunset
Yesterday I saw a lone trumpeter swan flying low by my place and it was checking out my pond but continued to fly by since my pond was totally ice covered yet. Other places reported their arrival yesterday, although the southern part of the state already seen their arrival last month, even if not a lot of open water for them then.
Course it is hard to get a picture when both heads are up when they are foraging for food but when they are in sync, they both have water running off their noses.
Trumpeter Swans
Battered and worn, this windmill has seen many seasons and it looks as tired as I am that this winter won’t end.
Wind Battered
I prefer the autumn picture I took of this barn and I imagine a spring picture would be pretty when the apple tree is in blossom, but I don’t know if I will get to see the spring picture since it is snowing again today so there would be more snow covering the trees and fence. And that might make a pretty picture too, but I can’t get out of the driveway yet until I clear the snow to go take the picture.
For those tired of winter, look at the autumn scene instead, click on this link – Signs of Autumn.
Signs of Winter
