I’m looking out the window and I see…FEBRUARY! No fooling, April has marched in like a snow leopard bringing us not one, but two snow events over the past weekend. It’s not melting very fast; however, the weather forecast for tomorrow is calling for over an inch of rain. That should allow some things to spring back. The fate of the daffodils, bloodroot and snow trillium? Well, there’s always next year.
Being an optimist I can say that I greatly enjoyed the snow during a hike yesterday afternoon. In the bright sunshine you could find tracks everywhere throughout the woods. The snow revealed the hiding place of miniscule mice, a secret stash of acorns by a grey squirrel and the obvious otter trail where trout were stalked in the brook. Deer digs and lays, fox trails and turkey tracks; all of these signs of the denizens of the forest told a story not of winter, but of spring.
Birds, too, could not keep the secret. A pair of Canada geese skulked out of a clump of tussock sedge, slipping away from their nest site. Tail-bobbing phoebes were out in force (they have been around since mid-march). I spied the great blue herons on their nests with tree swallows swooping overhead. I was even greeted by a grouse, drumming away.
Enjoy the spring snow; it is as ephemeral as our wildflowers.
