Signs of spring

It really has been hard waiting for winter to exit. Crushed expectations are a daily reminder that each season is unique and that I shouldn't be surprised at the excrutiatingly slow pace of the coming spring season.  After all, this is more the norm of decades past. We have been lulled into feeling like winter is easy these past fiften years or so. We even have a new term - "open winter" - that sounds inviting, yes ?

The vernal equinox dawned to minus 12 degrees - not a good start. But there are a few signs beginning to show even though the snow pack in the woods is still very deep and will take weeks to disappear. Between 21 and 28 inches were recorded over the weekend while floundering around off the snowshoe trails. But the texture of the snow has changed.  No longer the powdery fluff of midwinter, it now crusts and twists, expands and contracts as the temperatures flux around the freezing point.  That textural change can only mean that the snow is not long for this season.

The barn roof has developed a glacier that slowly slides toward its breaking point each day. In the past, this five month accumulation would all come off in one big avalanche when the temperature reached around forty.  Well, we have not even come close to that yet.  Thirty two or threeish each day has created this most interesteing exposition of plasticity.

Red oak leaves are beginning to fall from where they have been clinging tightly all winter.  They collect in the trails as a kind of road map toward the lengthening days as they absorb the heat of the approaching sun.

A bit of bare ground begins to emerge and grow each day the sun shines, but every other day it seems is overcast, so nothing like a thaw is achieved.



But the surest sign is at the end of the road. Dirty snow. Salt and sediment laden, the snowbanks are receeding at the same pace as the barn roof glacier, but the color change from pristine white to dog shit brown is in full swing.

An interseting note:  It is late enough in the spring already that some birds are beginning to court.  A few days ago there was a hairy woodpecker drumming on a dead and hollow aspen.  He would hammer a few beats and then scamper up the trunk a few feet and give the hammering another go.  This went on until he got to the top of the tree some forty feet up.  Then he would fly down and repeat the whole song and dance.  He played that aspen like a flute.

A very loud THUNK!!! on the big picture window ended the ambitions of a cock grouse out looking for a place to drum.  All the usual drumming logs are still under the snow, so I can only guess that he was looking for an open space to display.  It was an odd and unfortunate opportunity for the youngster to perform a perfect retrieve.

 Last fall I said "Hurry April". Now I'm hoping, "Hurry warm April."

Come on !!

Wednesday morning - 7am - six below zero. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!

And still the grip does not relax

Snowed another 7 inches over the weekend.
%$&^$#@*!!!!!!

Not a forty degree temp in sight.
Snowshoes will be required footwear at Brule

Enough already
Eat me

Winter Casualty

A few days ago in the middle of the afternoon Blondie excitedly called me away from my desk to point out a red bellied woodpecker that had just arrived at one of the feeders on the lake side of the house. Of course it was gone by the time I got up to take a look. Being a rare visitor here in Northern Minnesota, it is a colorful and refreshing sighting in what is becoming a very harsh winter. It is worth getting away from work for a few minutes to have a look.

This year the weather has been more akin to the winters of decades past. The bird returned to the sunflower seeds on several occasions following that first visit and seemed to be a bit odd in its behavior. Very puffed up against the cold and much searching through the seeds, but little ingestion of anything.

Sometime after midnight last night, I flipped on the outside light to have a look at the suet feeder that is placed in one of the back yard oaks. I was hoping to see a flying squirrel - there have been as many as three at a time using that added food source this winter. Instead of a squirrel, there was the red belly perched on the chunk of suet, head tucked under wing, shivering through the minus mid-teen temperature of the night. I thought it was odd behavior again and likely portended the demise of the woodpecker.

In the first light of morning the bird was still clinging to the suet - dead and frozen. One can only speculate as to the cause of death, but examination revealed a very emaciated condition.

Although the light is returning, winter is still deadly deep and unforgiving.

Orko

Random rambling about snow and birds and nomenclature and the inability to gather, focus, and record thoughts about same.

The birds were out and about in the middle of our biggest snowfall of the winter, Orko. I'm undecided about whether or not this winter storm naming thing works for me. I guess it's maybe a way of personifying the weather? Getting the average American to somehow become closer to nature ? Spicing it up a bit at the Weather Channel?
I just wonder how far this might go........  Snow shower Sasha.......  Snow squall Bernice......  Snow flurry Butch ?   Could get real stupid real quick.

Orko produced about sixteen inches of snow. The birds were at the feeder, along with the grey squirrels in the midst of the heaviest part of the storm. As usual, the chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, the single insane junco, and the redpols were not too enamoured of my photographic interference. The squirrels of course ran for their lives when I stepped onto the deck, their collective unconscious no doubt remembering that I have enjoyed them as a main course, braised in mushroom and red wine sauce. But there was one single redpol that just didn't give a rip that I was there. Determined to get all the fuel that might be required to ride Orko out, it sat there eating it's head off while I snapped free handed at about five feet away. Birds are usually too twitchy for me, so thanks, Mr. pol.

I don't remember too much after that. Plowing the driveway in the old Jeep. Smelling the sweet nectar of exhaust fumes. Vague thoughts about replacing the exhaust system. Shovel, shovel, shovel, shovel...... Somehow, all the snow removal was accomplished, deck cleared and bird feeders refilled.

Orko was a mixed bag of experience. I enjoyed the warm respite from the minus 20 plus temperatures of the previous few weeks, but I can do without quite so much precipitation, especially all in one heap. Now the forecast calls for a return this weekend to the arctic blasts.  Maybe we could name the next really cold spell something like......hmmm... High Pressure Ridge Ass Puckerer.  Sounds about right.

Damn!  Open water is a long ways off.

Midwinter Cold Snap

Friday was the warm day. Got up to 27 and the Sun shone brightly for the first time in three or four days. Grey days that barely made the teens. Office time. Bureaucrats. Politics. Deadlines. Ick.......

Friday's last two hours of daylight were mine. I sneaked out and drilled two holes. I wanted a couple of big bluegills for the pan. Presently a couple of big bluegills found my spoon. Tasted of its wax worm embellishments, and crossed the iced barrier between water and sky.

Sunday was the cold day. Got up to zero and the sun shone brightly through wind borne veils of crystaline snow showers. Indoor home time. Kitchen aromas. Fireplace glow. Feather tic snug. Yum...........

Saturday's last two hours enabled a starter to grow.  Sunday morning the rest of the ingredients were added to the dough. I wanted a Ciabatta bread for the plate. Slowly a bubbling blob began to resemble not much more than the bowl in which it grew.  I figured I had blown this artisan bread thing. But once proofed and baked, it crossed the heated barrier between gooo and Ambrosia !

Forecast calls for 27 below tonight. The inverse of Friday ?
Think I'll stay inside for pan seared bluegill with Ciabatta. 

Day one.

Bright, fresh
New and clean
Perhaps even pristine.
It can't last, but it is very very good for today.
Happy New Year.