Grey grey, Wind wind.  Endless cold.  Nothing seems to be moving.  Most of the earlier pussy willows have budded, but nothing is in flower yet.

However, searches among the long winter grasses show signs of life.  The inevitable dandelions.

And even the first chives.

This is the time of year that the mistletoe thrives.

One morning I thrilled to a very loud, harsh, ringing croak.  That wonderful prehistoric sound of sandhill cranes.

They are abundant further north, but here not seen so often so it was a real treat.

The next day it snowed.

The ice stays stubbornly on the ponds.

Recently, the feeder has been visited by a crow.

I don’t see them a lot, ravens are more common.  Then there were 2 crows. They hung about quite a bit so I wondered if they were going to nest nearby.  Then, everytime I looked out of the window, there was another crow and I ended up with 5.

They are entertaining birds but I have had to re-organize the feeders so they cannot gobble everything up too fast.

One day I was enormously surprised to see this guy trundling purposefully over my bare dirt yard.  He was 2″ long – I don’t know what he will turn into.  (I say “he”, but are insects programmed for gender at this stage or does the selection happen in the pupa?)

For weeks, the automated weather station at Puntzi has been promising 2 days of cool, showery weather with an improvement on the third.  Heatwaves have been foretold.  But every day, we still have 2 more days of cool, showery weather (we did get a bit of rain on one day.)  Yesterday the forecast predicted sunshine for today and night temperatures above freezing as well as hot days.  When the sky cleared yesterday evening, it looked as though the good weather was finally here to stay.

Suddenly, most of the ice was gone: even though the wind was gusty and cold, I felt sure the ice would disappear today. The creatures were loving this new, open water.

Mallards.

Barrows Goldeneyes

And a muskrat.

 

I had made it harder for the crows to get at the feeder, but nothing much stops the squirrel.

 

 

It was such a beautiful evening that I was convinced we would have good weather today.  But this morning the pond was completely frozen over , and it is back to grey skies and cold, cold wind.

 

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