Nearing Winter's tipping point?

We are very pleased to report that the sunshine and temperatures, including wind chills, during today's mid-day dog walk were quite pleasant. We are also looking forward to repeating that kind of a report for many more days this year. Unfortunately, such reports will probably not come in an uninterrupted string or else this would be something like San Diego, MN.

One of the big questions, hanging like a sword of Damocles over our heads, is: how much snow will we get this weekend? Some brave prognosticators are mentioning 4" - 8". We all know that there's a heck of a difference between the low and the high end of that range. The other big question has to do with how much of the weekend storm will fall as rain on our current 18" snow pack. It appears that this Spring, at least the early phases, may be much wetter than we're used to, or, maybe not. We have almost reached the point where we can take the attitude "Mother Nature put this here, let her take it away!"

Stay tuned!

On a brighter side, have you ever played Whac-A-Mole? We think of that game almost every time we look out the front windows and see a red squirrel pop up from one of the snow tunnels they've dug. Then s/he scurries to grab a sunflower seed or two and disappears before any predator has a chance to make a grab or take a whack at the furry little critter. They, and the moles and voles and shrews and whatever that feed on the deck feeder droppings by tunneling up under the snow, we'll probably be as unhappy to see it all melt as we'll be gleeful. Meanwhile, we continue to remain surprised the MnDNR classifies anything as small as a red squirrel game animal, but then trout aren't defined as game fish based on their size either.

mid-April goldfinch, bright yellow colors

Photo by J. Harrington

We've seen a couple of reports, including at least one from Northern Minnesota, to the effect that male goldfinches are starting to brighten their colors. We haven't noticed anything like that in our neck of the woods but will now be watching more carefully for that and the arrival over the next few weeks of purple finches. At the moment, none of the locals, except the cardinal, are as colorful as the mid-April plumage from a couple of years ago that we see above.

Osip Mandelstam

My Goldfinch

Translated by Henry King

Let’s look out at the world together,
My goldfinch, with our heads to one side:
Do you, like me, find winter weather
Prickly as a grain in the eye?
Boat-like tail-feathers black and yellow,
Around your beak a scarlet mask;
Can you tell, you cocksure fellow,
How much a goldfinch you really are?
What an air above his forehead:
Black and red, yellow and white;
Eyes open, he looks back and forward,
Now looks no longer – he’s taken flight!

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