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
Mother Nature sure giving plenty of opportunities for snow to land on those robins. And with the couple of inches this morning, those bird tails should have been coated well so maybe it will stop snowing and spring can finally arrive.
Very Unspringlike
Spring arrived late this evening, but it sure didn’t look or feel like spring as snow was falling. And now the wind is rattling the trees making it feel even colder.
Arrival of Spring Snow
The morning was whiter than I wanted to see with a fresh coating of snow and hoarfrost too. The sun peaked out in the afternoon to help re-melt the new snow layer.
White Frost
On Sunday when the weather was warmer, I cleaned my wood duck boxes and put fresh shavings in them. The melting snow filled my pond (and my boots too when I stepped in deep snow with water running beneath the snow). Now tonight there is a fresh coating snow covering the ground and the ice layer on the pond. At least the amount of snow should be light if the forecast is correct.
Frozen Pond
The temperature barely made it above freezing but the sunshine made it feel warmer and snow was melting. My packed snow path to my bird feeder is slippery with the melting snow but at least I didn’t have to shovel a path in the deep snow like some years.
Shoveled Snow Path
There was no happy birds singing this morning as the fluffy snowflakes fell. At least the amount of snow wasn’t a lot as it changed from big flakes, to drizzle before switching to ice pellets and then finally to small snowflakes again. So while it was a gray day, it wasn’t a heavy snow, like some past winter days in which even the trees seemed weary of winter.
Weary of Winter
The extra day of this leap year was extra white this morning with a new coating of hoarfrost until the sun came out and melted it.
Extra White on Extra February Day
The ice crystals make an interesting ‘flower’ but they will fade and disappear in the bright sunlight as the sun strength becomes stronger near the end of February.
Ice Flower
