Spring Fling...an Ode to Spring

I am currently experiencing my best Spring EVER.

Just wanted you to know.

How does Spring (and I know I shouldn't capitalize that word, but it is such an ENTITY here, that I think it needs the proper-est of names) in Iowa compare to Spring in the UP?

In Iowa, most of the time Spring goes like this:  Lots of winter, ice, snow, wind chill, followed by melting...a few cool-ish days, then suddenly a lot of 70's and maybe 80's. Spring bulbs bloom, but don't last, because it just heats up too fast, most years.  By the time school is out, the AC has been on for some time to suck out the humidity from inside the houses and school buildings. Stuff greens up fast, and that is that...summer weather is here!

Spring in the UP comes in fits and starts.  First, the calendar SAYS it's Spring, which means NOTHING.  Then there are a few melting days, when you can start to see the ground in some places, and the intermittent streams and creeks are full to bursting. Water stands in the fields, creating ponds and marshes for shorebirds.

Click here to see a pretty little shorebird!

 LOTS of snow remains in the big piles left from drifts or plowing.  Some days you wake up to white, which begins to disappear a little more quickly.  A few warm days take out the ice in rivers and lakes. In spite of the slow start, birds and plants say it just MAY BE Spring, really.

Ever so slowly, green starts to appear.  LOTS of different shades of green.

And trees and bushes start to bloom!

Suddenly out of the leaf litter comes flowers you didn't know were there.

trout lilies

trillium

marsh marigolds

And strangers appear at the bird feeder.

savannah sparrow

chipping sparrow

not a sparrow

Mr. Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Mrs. Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Mrs. Red-winged Blackbird (MISTER is too chicken to pose!)

song sparrow

clay-colored sparrow

baltimore oriole (Mr. Jelly Eater)

Mrs. and Mr. Evening Grosbeak

white-throated sparrow

white-crowned sparrow (rare western taiga subspecies, because I'm a bird nerd!)

and the evening grosbeaks again, because I love the subtle coloring of the female!

young male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, just molting into his courting duds.  (I think he is the cutest thing ever!)

And just when you thought it was here for good, Spring has a laugh at your expense.

Click here to see my Saturday morning surprise!

And another when, ten hours later, the snow is gone.

and in the midst of it, Mr. Hummingbird shows up, because he doesn't mind no stinking snow!

Temperatures?  Along with a couple of sunny afternoons, like Mother's Day, when I was allowed to go to camp and just SIT OUT and enjoy the sun (and the resultant sunBURN!) comes a lot of cool days, and even cooler nights.  No gardening yet, because heavy frosts are still likely into the first weeks of JUNE here.

first bird visitor to camp

view from Splude Hill

But that's okay, because there is TIME.  Time to stop and turn off the TV and unplug and watch some Bird TV right outside the window.

Time to take a drive and see a different landscape coming alive more and more every day.

Time to remember the Creator of all this beauty and give Him thanks and thanks, and thanks again for bringing me to this beautiful place and for thinking up the infinite variety of living things in the world.

And even more thanks for the ability I've been given to recognize the beauty that surrounds me.

this picture is Bob's....he recognizes it, too

Every day.

Amen.