Signs of Spring?

[yellowcanoe]

Well it is warm. 48 feels hot. And the dirt roads here are slick. In another week we ought to be able to bury SUV's as the frost comes out. Lake beginning to blue up

A bit early for anything to bud but this year is odd. A little subpar for snow and cold periods below zero at the oddest times we have a little bare ground. That ought not be quite yet. Bud out ought to be early May usually. Daffodil and crocus about May 10

The bad news is that daylight savings time starts this weekend. We got used to the sun up at six am and now it will be darkish till seven. Watch me oversleep.
The goldfinches have arrived en masse. Just a few over the winter but hordes in the breeding season.. The chickadees have gone where? And the juncos?

 

[snapper]

Heard my first red-winged blackbirds on March 1st. We have robins throughout the winter so the red-winged blackbirds are my true sign that spring is on the way. They arrived 3 1/2 weeks earlier than last year; which was the latest I'd ever heard them. Today it's up near 60 F and it's supposed to be that way again tomorrow.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[MacCamper]

Tapped my maples and have had decent flow for the last two days, two weeks early. Sandhill cranes arrived yesterday. Many golf courses open by this weekend. Ice out in the twin cities expected to be quite early.

 

[red langford]

Mad rush of trucks trying to get the last loads up the winters roads before the thaw.

 

[Mihun09]

The skunks are out of hibernation. Double digit plus' forecast for the next 6 days, we could get an early ice out considering the mild Winter lessened the ice thickness. We are losing our snow pack fast.

 

[Odyssey]

The Northern Cardinals have started singing, and won't stop their courtship calls till late summer. Dark Eyed Juncos are quietly foraging around the yard; most will be winging northward to their summer habitat soon. Blue Jays are noisily harassing the neighbourhood, and I've seen Turkey Vultures soaring high above riding the thermals this week. Lots of bird activity seems to have burst from nowhere, turning a quiet countryside into a frenzied dash for food and mates.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've seen Turkey Vultures soaring high above riding the thermals this week.

Around here they seem show up within a 2 day window the last two days of March. Doesn't seem to matter how long the winter has been or how early the spring. For a while I kept track of such things and remember a few years in a row it was always March 31st. I wonder how they'll handle this leap year?

Alan

 

[Odyssey]

I don't remember seeing any Turkey Vultures when I was a kid. I wasn't the most attentive youngster mind you. I still recall the first one I spotted about 20 years ago; I was driving with my brother when we saw this huge stark shadow looming over us. We stopped the car and gawked at this strange dark shape 100 feet above; I recognized it from Birding books and subconsciously ticked it off my list.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/vultures-riding-north/
Now they're everywhere here from spring to late fall. Whatever the reason they're here to stay. The municipal dump is only a couple miles away (not as gruesome as it sounds) and attracts gulls and vultures. They look gloomily straight out of a fantasy story, hulking black figures in the roadside trees looking like black cloaked undertakers waiting for you to wander too near...rampant imagination.
The verdant green valley in which we live provides lots of carrion both domestic and wild for these vultures.
Not far from here are lookouts from which you can see the return of migrating raptors, vultures and song birds. It's weird to stand on a trail near the edge of an escarpment and look straight out at vultures soaring on thermals above the plain and valley below. Almost makes you want to spread your arms and lift off yourself.

 

[Alan Gage]

It's weird to stand on a trail near the edge of an escarpment and look straight out at vultures soaring on thermals above the plain and valley below. Almost makes you want to spread your arms and lift off yourself.

Best we can do here in the flat lands is wind towers. I was allowed to climb the one our local community college maintains and one of the things I remember most vividly is looking down on turkey buzzards as they soared below. Pretty neat perspective.

I remember seeing my first one when I was about 12 years old. I loaded trap at the local Isaack Walton every Thursday evening during the summer. From my little concrete bunker I saw a couple soar over the small bluff. I didn't really know anything about birds but I knew they were different from the hawks I usually saw. I asked the old guy, who was probably 50 but sure seemed old at the time, and he told me what they were. He didn't seem shocked my their presence but they have definitely grown more prevalent over the years. Their numbers seem to go up exponentially as you drive towards the eastern border of Iowa and the bluff country of the Mississippi valley where Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota converge. It's known as the driftless region and was missed by the last glaciation. A small ecosystem unto itself.

Alan

 

[yellowcanoe]

No Title

Signs of spring.. usually don't start much till the water opens up. Nothing notable avian has arrived. The loons languish in open salt water twenty miles away.. Not inclined to return till there is enough open water for them to squabble over for nesting. Eagles may be returning but again like open water for fishing and one of their delicacies are baby chicks of other species and eggs.

Will look for sandhill cranes.

The wild turkeys of course have been here all winter and are travelling in large flocks.

Turkey buzzards, once very rare, are becoming more common but have not seen one yet

Maybe a sign of spring was the pileated that fed on some of our suet for some 15 minutes in plain sight. She might be preparing for nesting.

Haven't seen any mergansers..usually predate the loons

Hordes of goldfinches are necessitating getting more seed daily

 

[raven4]

Spring??? Still four feet of ice on the lakes up here…and this is a warm el Nino year! At least I don't have to change my clock this weekend, no daylight savings time in Saskatchewan...

 

[Mihun09]

Spring??? Still four feet of ice on the lakes up here…and this is a warm el Nino year! At least I don't have to change my clock this weekend, no daylight savings time in Saskatchewan...

You must be way up in Sask for that kind of ice. Down in the southern portion of Manitoba we didn't get a real Winter at all so I expect the ice to get out well before the usual second week of May. We have temperatures in the high 40's, low 50's next 5 days or so which should make short work of the snow. I'm not expecting this mild spell to hold long but will take it while we have it, maybe we will get to see the actual driveway again soon.

 

[raven4]

Up in Clearwater River…. Mild winter here for second year in a row,…but without any real snow this year we still had lots of ice form…. cross country skiing today watching the trucks drive out on the ice road. …Ice fishing this weekend and the auger was buried to the motor in ice to just break through...

 

[stripperguy]

Man, good deal on that, plenty of soul in that ride for sure! What's the other bike hiding behind the Guzz? Hard to tell w a wire wheel, fairly skinny tire, disc and a strut rather than a shock, first thought HD, but just curious as the pipe didn't fit with the rest of what I was seeing...

Yeah,
That's a 2004 HD Heritage Classic Softtail that I'm rebuilding to sell for profit. Definitely not my thing, I ride a 2010 Bonnie Special Edition. Son's Guzzi is like motorized art, it just oozes style and class!

Back on topic, sort of, I just pinned down dates for my gang's trip to Terror Lake this July, and MDB is talking about going for a paddle this Sunday...a lot of open water near home.

 

[Kayak_Ken]

Saw a couple of dozen fireflys last night. In about two weeks the woods around my house will be full of them

 

[Odyssey]

At work yesterday there was a sound I'd not heard in a long while, and it was a sign of spring to me. Have you ever been drifting off to sleep in a front country campsite, and been suddenly jarred awake by a stubborn bear banging on the steel vault garbage containers? They make one heck of a racket. The metal boxes boom like angry drums, and make it hard to fall back asleep. This sound also reminded me of dump trucks, when the driver lurches forward to dislodge the last half yard of his load from the truck bed, the heavy gate swinging and slamming against the open bed; the noise erupts through the jobsite like an explosion. I've heard that on so many construction jobs. But yesterday I was working in a century home in an old neighbourhood where there were no dump trucks and certainly no bears. The rain spattered against the windows while the gusting wind whistled in the eaves; and then there was that sound again. A slow grumble rolling into a sudden crack, dying to an echo across the rooftops. I'd not heard a thunderstorm like that in a long time. We've had spasms of spring for a few weeks now; so much so that it's been anybody's guess when spring would finally arrive for real. My guess is the storm that blew through yesterday signalled spring has finally arrived. Our spring is different this year though. For the first time in I don't remember how long the flood warnings which are normally an annual occurrence around here have been cancelled. With little snow late in the winter and not much rain to speak of so far the rivers and streams are running tamer this year.

 

[Iskweo]

Lucky you. It snowed here again last night. With any luck it will fillin some of the potholes.

 

[yellowcanoe]

No Title

It's HERE! Must be the beer!

 

[Mihun09]

As Christy said, we got 3-4 inches of fresh wet snow last night and it just added to the existing drainage issues. Manitoba is flat, where does the water go?

This farm had whitecaps on it yesterday as the storm moved in and it isn't draining anywhere.


Now, this next one is in town here. Last year these people bermed up the ditch side a fair bit but it isn't enough for this year. The drainage ditch for the entire town runs behind this persons property and although they used an excavator on Tuesday to clean the ditch out behind us, the water isn't flowing through frozen culverts under the highway a mile away, so it is still backing up into town. Worst part for these people is they sold the house two weeks ago.

This is the garage side, the house still has about a foot of land height around it, but it is supposed to be warm enough this weekend to continue the melt. Right next to the road the ditch is about 4 feet deep.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

No Title

May apples last Tuesday.