UP Dreams: Spring at Last!

I know it's officially been Spring for some time. But now it FEELS like it, too.

My favorite color is always green. But in Spring it's SPRING green. This color is can vary, but to me it means the color of something starting new growth in the spring. There are just hints of it right now around here...nothing has really entirely "greened up" yet. But it is starting...definitely...finally.

It seems strange that just a week ago, everything here was covered with several inches of snow. The bird feeders were full of little redpolls, especially, trying to stay warm and stock up for their impending travels north.Yesterday, a few stragglers remained, today, none.

I will miss you, little friend...safe travels

Instead, I have Sparrowpalooza going on in my yard. I've seen and heard Chipping, Song, American Tree, Fox, House, White-throated, and Savannah Sparrows.

Song Sparrows are big, somewhat aggressive ground feeders, with a lovely song.

Savannahs are cute and streaky, with yellow eyeshadow

Chipping Sparrows are not usually this puffy, but this one was tired and hungry and had probably flown hundreds of miles with his tiny wings just to get to my yard. I feel privileged.

Some are still on their way north, others have arrived for the season. I also saw my first Purple Finches, which Roger Tory Peterson, the author of the first best field guide to birds, described as a "sparrow dipped in raspberry juice." This perfect description makes identification foolproof for this little cutie.

not really purple at all

even his rump is raspberry-colored

girls are just streaky and cute

Last weekend, the weather was perfectly gorgeous. Warm, sunny...it seemed like you could sense the forests waking up as quickly as a time-lapse photo. Bob and I took some forest roads to see what was hopping. One of the first things we noticed were the Spring Peepers. These teeny tiny frogs (one inch, really) had unfrozen (literally) and come to life in everything from big ponds to little temporary puddles, and despite their size, their sound is simply deafening. We sat and listened for a while, drove away and literally could feel our ears recovering from the temporary damage caused by their rock concert loud SINGING. Click HERE for singing frogs...turn your volume WAY UP for the real effect.
There were also some Green Frogs starting to sing. In field guides, their sound is described as like the twang of a banjo string, but I hear them sometimes from my tent at night and think I hear the sound of hundreds of deep grumbling old man voices. I suppose that is not a very PC description for a field guide!

One of the funniest moments of our drive through the forest was when Bob at one point slammed on the brakes, and just as suddenly put the car into reverse. "You're going to want to get this." he said, meaning "Pick up your camera, woman, and get it ready." So I did, and right by the road, we got to watch this cutie.

porcupine!

I know porcupines are probably not cute to people who have inquisitive dogs, or valuable timber on their property and there is a reason you are allowed to shoot them in every season, but I find them fascinating, and cute, too. Funny as I got out of the car and shot (with my camera) this one, I never considered it running TOWARDS me instead of away, although I have heard that they will bluff attack if provoked. Click HERE to see how ferocious a porcupine can be! Don't worry, I will not be so impulsive if we see a bear or moose chewing on maple buds by the side of the road! I tend to find most animals to be CUTE. It's a problem I have.

For instance, as I type this, there is a very cute little chipping sparrow who just arrived, apparently, from the latest leg of his migration flight, and who is watching my every movement from the bird feeder outside my window, trying to decide if I am going to attack (bluff or otherwise).

yes...

I can see you, too

In the time it took me to take those pics and type that sentence, he has decided it's okay to watch me AND pick up an occasional seed.

millet is yummy (really)

It's interesting how the smallest birds are usually the bravest (think Mister Hummingbird), while I seldom can get a picture of a crow, a blackbird or a jay in the yard. They fly off immediately if they see me through the window.

Mr. Grackle (Chicken) hides out in the tree across my driveway, watching me through the window

along with his other (chicken) friends, the Brown-headed Cowbird and Red-winged Blackbirds.

Can you tell I could talk about birds (mammals and amphibians) all day? And well into tomorrow, as well. I can't explain it. Their lives are so complex and interesting. Like this eagle, who sat in a tree waayy across the field from my house yesterday, guarding his prey (the LEG of which you can see dangling from the tree limb) from crows,

I would guess it WAS a rabbit

and even watching ME open the slider door to get an unobstructed view.

yes, I can see you, too (thanks to my zoom lens!)

Anyway, Spring has been a long time coming this year. In spite of that, the birds KNOW. For the most part, they can sense when to fly, and when to wait out the storm. They are drawn inexorably to their mating grounds, so precisely that the same birds will come back to the same nest in the same yard. To me, that is amazing. And beautiful.

All the green stuff, too, knows when it's time. Time to soak up the rays of the sun and turn it into chlorophyll, that gorgeous fave color of mine. Time to put energy into buds and flowers and leaves. Yesterday, the willows were BURSTING as I drove home from work. Crazy lady stopped by the side of the road taking pictures of pussy willows....that would be me. But is there a better harbinger of what's to come than this?