The first signs of new life has appeared for Easter morning since a lone flower has poked through the dormant winter covering. The Glory-of-the-snow is a suitable name for this flower since there is still snow on the ground yet but the ‘glory’ of seeing some color besides white is a joyous occasion.
Glory-of-the-Snow
With the sun out yesterday and no new snow, the birds could land on the ground again like these Northern Flickers. Although it can climb up the trunks of trees and hammer on wood like other woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker prefers to find food on the ground. Ants are its main food, and the flicker digs in the dirt to find them. It uses its long barbed tongue to lap up the ants.
Spring is also the time when birds are finding mates and Northern Flicker rivals face off in a display sometimes called a “fencing duel,” while a prospective mate looks on. Two birds face each other, bills pointed upward, and bob their heads in time. It was interesting to watch but I wonder what the female thinks of the males “fencing duel”.
Fencing Duel
Mother Nature has been rather cruel to Northern Wisconsin this spring since when there is even a hint of spring arriving, more than a foot of new snow blankets the ground again. And Duluth, MN has set the fifth snowiest winter and with more snow predicted tonight, they might make number four.
I don’t know if spring will ever come before winter starts again and even my ducks must have headed south again as they didn’t like the snow.
Will Spring Come
Winter’s Strong Grip
I am having trouble finding any color this spring as there are no flowers blooming yet, even if I could find them under the snow. About the only color I can find are some leaves from last year which are under the water in the pond. At least the melting snow has filled the pond with clear water so you can see deep into the pond to where the leaf was resting on last year’s cattail leaves.
The refilled pond also had visitors the other day as a pair of mallards and a pair of wood ducks were enjoying a swim but I didn’t try to get pictures of them as I wanted the wood ducks to nest in the duck house.
Color Under the Water
My niece had an early wake up call when one of her cows was calving this morning. And calving wasn’t late enough this year since the ground is white again with a fresh new layer of snow and so I didn’t even walk to the barn in the cold weather to take a picture of the new calf. The calves two years were enjoying green grass and dandelions in April but not this year. And no warm sunshine to take a nap outside either.
Sleepy Time Calf
April 15th is dreaded by some since today individual income taxes are due in the United States and April 15th has had other tragic events like the Boston Marathon bombing, the sinking of the RMS Titanic and Abraham Lincoln dies from an assassin’s bullet. And a ‘blood moon’ seemed rather eerie in the early morning hours especially when the moon totally disappeared when I was trying to take pictures of the eclipse. The moon disappeared and the owls stopped hooting so it looked like the world was ending, at least when a lone cloud covered the moon from sight for a few minutes.
The first lunar eclipse of the tetrad (a series of four consecutive total eclipses occurring at approximately six month intervals) today was when Mars was also the closest to Earth in years. The 21st century will see frequent tetrads but during the three hundred period between 1600 to 1900 there was no tetrads so Abraham Lincoln never got a chance to witness a lunar tetrad.
The red of the ‘blood’ moon actually comes from the Earth’s circumference, which is a fiery ring of sunsets and sunrises around the world (except for where some of us were standing out in the night in below freezing temperatures taking pictures). The red light entering the atmosphere is bent towards the Earth’s surface and it is bent again when it exists the other side and the double bending beams reddish light into the heart of Earth’s shadow and the coppery glow transforms the moon into a great red orb or bloody moon.
Blood Moon
The Two Harbors Light is the oldest operating lighthouse in the US state of Minnesota. Overlooking Lake Superior’s Agate Bay, the lighthouse is located in Two Harbors, Minnesota. The lighthouse construction was completed in 1892 and the first lighting of the Two Harbors light was on April 14, 1892.
The tower is made of red brick and the head keeper’s residence is attached, it towers 78 feet from the lake level to the top with an octagonal lantern room originally equipped with a fixed, fourth-order Fresnel lens.
The Keeper’s Quarters of the Lighthouse have been restored to the early 20th century era which the Lake County Historical Society operates as a bed and breakfast.
Two Harbors Lighthouse
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
