Tundra Swans and Marsh Marigolds

Spring break is over, so the other work resumes now, but I'm pleased to say that Audubon's Journal of 1826 is now in the publication pipeline at Nebraska. Last week I made the revisions to the Introduction, re-paginated the ten computer files, printed it all out again, and handed it off to the UPS folks to deliver. Now I'll turn to the Upper Missouri River journals of 1843 to keep me busy until the 1826 appears a year from now.

The bridges that David and I built, and their moorings, have shown their excellence in the recent flood waters. For about a day, the flooded marsh flowed just over the tops of the two spans, but they did not budge. I do wonder, though, where the musk rats and otters go when there is so much water. In the receding water, a large insect of formidable appearance washed up on the bridge. It's about two inches long and no doubt is a species that eats and is eaten.

As the water recedes and the snow and ice melt, up come the marsh marigolds, always the first flowering plant here to show itself above its roots. The plants in the photo above must have been called forth by the sunlight before the ice covering them had thawed. Robert Frost's poem "Spring Pools" says the marigolds arise from "snow that melted only yesterday." Well, they might be that orderly in Vermont, but in wild Michigan, they don't wait their turn. They actually help the ice to melt.

After today, I will always associate the first marsh marigolds with the northward migration of the tundra swans. This gray morning I was watching another recent arrival, a song sparrow, singing in the top of an elm, when I heard a flock of tundra swans heading my way. A minute later, they came into view flying lower than I've seen them before, barely a hundred feet off the ground. They flew directly over the sparrow and me, just a little higher than the tops of the aspens. That was quite a happy moment, to be caught up in the rush of all those white wings passing over the tangle of bare aspen branches whose buds are full of sap now.

Three days ago, the first turkey egg shells showed up on one of the trails. This means predation, of course, by foxes, raccoons, or minks. The second photo above shows more evidence of predation in our river valley. That's the pelvis and one complete hind leg of a small white-tail, fresh and completely picked over. Coyotes, I suppose.

These things must be watched.