The critters seemed to have like the sunshine today as much as I did. The ducks were swimming in the pond instead of wadding through snow. Deer were grazing in the field, turkeys were strutting around and the rabbits were hopping across the lawn. Chipmunks and squirrels were chasing each other while the birds were chirping as my cats kept an eye on them. And at the end of the day, the critters disappeared into the darkness as the sun dipped below the horizon again.
Sunday Sunset
The sun was out and it shown bright on the new layer of snow. I watched the poor wood ducks waddle through the snow after they took a swim in the steam rising pond. The tree limbs sparkled with the ice coating but by afternoon, the sun was able to melt a majority of the snow and the ice under the snow layer.
Ice Coated Leaves
The April’s Fool joke sent by Mother Nature didn’t arrive on the 1st but was apparently delayed until today when the rain turned to ice and then to snow which covered the ground in a new white coating.
Spring is Gone
The winds blew in some warmer air today, even if the clouds made it feel cooler, but the spring peepers said it was spring. The tiny frogs sure have a loud high-pitched call but they might not be singing spring tomorrow if we get some freezing rain.
Spring Peeper
While cleaning the birdhouses, I did have one box with a furry rodent refusing to vacate the birdhouse, even with me pushing and poking the mouse. So maybe he heard that in some places, he couldn’t be evicted because of the coronavirus. The mouse might have been more scared of the hawk circling overhead than me and it went right back into the birdhouse as soon as I closed the door.
No Eviction
March came in like a lamb, and with sunshine and a temperature in the low fifties, March went out like a lamb too. Or maybe floated out like a butterfly, as one of the first butterflies of the season was enjoying the sunshine on my lawn this afternoon. The Mourning Cloak has one brood in July and after flying around in the summer and fall, it hibernates over winter before mating in spring.
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
I was down by my pond today straightening the wood duck box poles (now that the frost is finally out of the ground) and spotted a few tiny fish swimming in the water. I also heard a bluebird so another bird has returned from the south so another sign of spring even if no wildflowers yet.
Bluebird Returns
I almost posted a picture of the poor geese getting snowed on this morning. They were probably wondering why they came back so soon even if the rain melted the ice off my pond. It was a wet gloomy day but just as the sun was setting, there was a break the clouds to give some color and light to an otherwise dismal day.
Sunset After Snow and Rain
Yesterday evening I spotted a male wood duck by my pond, even though the pond was covered with ice. This morning there was five male and three females wood ducks and one of the males was acting like an icebreaker vessel as it jumped on the ice several times to create a path in the ice. The rain today helped melt some of the ice, giving the ducks more room to swim around.
Wood Ducks Return
I was on the hunt for any spring flower (so I could give one to my mom for her birthday) but I had no luck finding a blossom. There were signs of daffodils, lilies and irises poking up about an inch but no snow glories or even a dandelion flowering yet. There was some growth happening on the various moss patches with sporophytes reaching upward.
Moss Sporophytes
