Maybe?

Despite the freezing rain in the forecast for this afternoon, I have hope that perhaps we are actually for-real into spring now. The weekend is supposed to be sunny and warm; time to start visiting the forests to try and find the early-blooming wildflowers.

Spring ephemerals are kind of awesome, when you think about it. It's this entire group of plants that have all evolved to sprout, flower, and produce seed in the tiny window of time between when the snow melts and the tree canopy closes in. Once the light is gone from the understory, a lot of them will die back completely and you'd never even know they were there. Trilliums are probably the most famous around here, but there are so many others.

Green is coming. I can't wait.

Climate Change Sucks

What a weird freaking winter. Spring? Sprinter? What do you call it when it's 15 degrees in the middle of February, then drops 20 degrees in one day at the beginning of March? There are tons of migrants showing up early, the ponds are already free of ice... for now, at least. We'll be below freezing for the next 2-3 days so that may not last.

I'm hoping to go visit one of those ponds after work today, see if I can catch some of the ducks that have been reported there. Unless it's frozen over again, in which case I'll probably try the nearest section of the Speed River instead, since that would be the closest open water.

In the meantime, please join me in admiring this Merlin that I saw on my lunchtime walk earlier this week: