The Real First Day Of Spring

Finally, the first warm day of spring!

I spent the afternoon down by the Crow River today. What a difference a week makes: we went from a foot and a half of snow, to temperatures in the low 60s. There were a lot of people out today with smiles of relief on their faces. I chatted with a young lady named Lily who was out with her friends picking up garbage along the river in honor of Earth Day. I enjoyed chatting with her. I ran into a couple of my river rat friends, folks I have gotten to know while enjoying the trails. Everybody was saying Happy Spring and yelling, "We made it through another one!" I caught myself with a silly grin on my face all day as well.

The blizzard had a big impact on migrating birds around here. There was a report of dead Robins around the birdfeeder in someone's backyard, and there was a large killing of Coots on a highway next to a lake during the blizzard as well. The ice isn't out yet and the lake bottoms are a primary source of food for Coots. It wasn't horribly cold, but many habitats weren't ready to host migrating birds so they couldn't feed.

Down by the river today the sounds of the birds were like a symphony, and a balm to my winter weary heart. Two days before the snowstorm I spotted Red-winged Blackbirds, Pelicans, and a Sandhill Crane. I saw all but the Crane today; I hope it made it through the blizzard. I also noticed that the Gulls are back. I saw them standing out on the ice, which is not completely out yet. I also heard an assorted number of "song sparrows", for lack of knowing their exact names yet, and I heard Goldfinches.

At one point, I heard a noise that sounded like kids playing down in the brush next to the river, but I soon realized it was actually the ice-out moving  against the low hanging branches. The water is almost at flooding stage, so low-lying branches that would normally be out of the water, were dipping their small branches into the water. There was a lot of LOUD popping and cracking. Right in front of me,  a tree that was already rotting and leaning forward, but whose roots and trunk were still firmly in the ground 3 to 4 feet from shore, was literally pushed by the ice until it ended up at a 90° angle from the trunk. An 18 to 20 inch diameter tree that was perpendicular to the shoreline became parallel  to the shoreline. The ice literally twisted the tree from its trunk roots right in front of me.  Although it wasn't a large amount of ice, boy did it have power!  I'd always heard about ice-outs, the noise, potential for damage, and I have seen amazing video of such events (search: ice tsunami Millacs Lake, May 11, 2013), but to be present for one, no matter how small, was thrilling! I'm definitely going to have to work on my skills for taking videos.

It is good to have Spring back.