The snow goes away, slowly, exposing frozen leaves that soon will melt into the earth to nourish wildflowers and tree roots.
Steam rose from the river this morning. The slow melt lessens the chance of a flood, for which I am grateful.
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I'm watching an eagle's nest on my way home from work every day.
The nest is two or three years old and appeared to be active last year. A Bald Eagle has been on the nest a couple of times this year, but not regularly.
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Same river, different geese, near my office
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Looking for signs of Spring one day at lunch,
I was watched,
then found what I sought,
Skunk Cabbage, melting its way through the snow from Winter into Spring.
(Some of us are more tolerant of wet feet than others.)
8 comments:
Beautiful photographs!
I'm witnessing the same slow receding of snow, Jain. An eagle's nest would be a wonderful thing to watch or even to see, I can tell it is huge. No skunk cabbage here, just skunks and a little green.
Great post today! These are wonderful photos. I'm also having a good time going through your other posts.
Though I haven't checked the back side of the cottage this morning, I believe all—or almost all—the snow has disappeared from the yard, including under the cedars. There are patches of snow still remaining on the island across from the cottage, mostly on the northwest facing bank. The river is up 2-3 feet, which isn't bad, and rose slowly, for which I'm grateful—and isn't even all that muddied. Yesterday's higher temperatures softened up the frozen yard; plenty of mud for Moon the dog to get on her feet, so we do our toweling-off routine after every outing.
This morning, I'm going to try and check a nearby soggy corner for skunk cabbage, and also a woods about five miles from here for snow trillium. I'm hoping with the eagles I've seen lately that one of these days they'll decide to build a nest along a portion of this stream.
Nice post and pictures. I especially like the one of the watchful whitetail.
Just beautiful, Jain! I love the slow transition you describe. We have such a sudden jolt from one extreme to the next that I sometimes forget others enjoy a much more graceful slide into spring.
And an eagle's nest! I do hope they use it. That would be a fantastic gift for you--and one I just know you'd wand to share!
Thank you, Green Gal and Kay!
Wanda, skunks are active here. I smell them when I let the dogs out in the morning -- which strikes terror into my heart! And the ground was torn up 'neath the bird feeder yesterday morning.
Scribe, I'm looking for snow trillium, too, one of my faves. I heard of a place close to my office but couldn't find it last year. I've enlisted the aid of a knowledgeable coworker and hope to find some later in the week. Good luck on your quests! I was waaaay too close to the whitetail when I saw him/her and wondered if they'll charge an interloper. I respectfully scurried away as soon as our eyes met.
Jason, Spring can be excruciatingly, painfully slow here, but with so much snow so late into Winter, there will be less brown than usual. Oh, the brown mud, brown limbs, brown trunks, and dead brown leaves do get annoying after a while. I'm keeping an eye on that nest and will report back as soon as I see some action!
I love the changes that happen there. In Australia you don't see that much, well it does get hot and everything drys out!
Ah, but wouldn't I love to see Australia just once! It would seem like a different planet to me, I'm sure!
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