Second Week of Spring

Alison's out on an 18-miler, and I'm just in from my first tour of our place in a week. The river's back up into the marsh after a heavy rain the night before last. But this week has been full of vernal news. Both Hooded Mergansers and Buffleheads arrived at the shallow pond about two and a half miles north of here. The year's first frog choruses emerged on March 25th, which was the same day that the bird shit on the porch turned blue. The Phoebes arrived this week and set up their incessant bragging about who they are: "Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe." Yeah, big deal. This morning, which is quite frosty, three phoebes are playing out the drama of mate selection. The female flits from one tree-top to the next pretending not to care about either of the two males chasing her; the boys try to impress her, but as soon as she turns her back, they turn toward each other to fight, beak to beak in a downward spiral until they all but hit the ground.

Noah Byler and Henry Hirshberger just arrived in their buggy to apply the second coat of drywall compound to the ceilings of the two downstairs rooms. This won't take them long, so they'll be able to get outside for the warmer part of this sunny day to continue the plowing they've begun this week.

Last Saturday, which was cold, I sharpened my tree spade and, with tractor and trailer, moved twenty aspen saplings from the hill behind the barn up to the front of the property. I hauled water as well to fill each hole before planting the tree, as Mama Hale taught me to do. These are all between six and ten feet tall, so they should be tall enough to survive whatever the deer do to them. I say they're aspens, but I hope some of them are basswood. In either case, they'll grow tall quickly, and we're looking forward to seeing the first leaves soon.


This morning brought the arrivals also of Golden-crowned Kinglets and Field Sparrows. And this past Thursday saw the arrival of my "Scientific Collector's Permit" from the DNR, so I am now a Scientific Professor and on the lookout for roadside misfortunes.

The two photos above show a very close image of a striped skunk and a pair of his or her pawprints laid just a few minutes before I got there this morning. Otherwise, the bottomland is full of turkey calls, wood duck whistles, mallard quacks, cardinal orations, grouse thrummings, and the green fusing in.