I'm Ready for Green

Why is it that when the sun finally is making some headway with melting the icefield in my backyard, there is snow in the forecast again?  I opened the curtains this morning to get a good view of the yard and I could see the mountain pines that I planted last fall!  The edge of the snow is slowly but surely receding.

I thought I'd better get a hike in before the rain and snow start falling.  The wind was brisk so it added to the forest sounds.  As I sat on my favorite bench on the trail, the tall trees creaked as they swayed back and forth.  I watched a couple of crows trying to fly into the wind.  A squirrel was not paying attention to the fact that I was sitting on the bench.  It came within a couple of feet from the bench before it realized that I was sitting there.

I heard a blue jay call and some coyotes howl.  The binoculars were in my pack today but I didn't use them.  The little boreal chickadees were not out today.  In fact, there were no birds in sight on the trail.

I did have some luck on the drive home.  Before leaving the park, I saw the first robin of spring.  That poor little thing is going to have to enlist a woodpecker to chip the earthworms out of the frozen soil.  I was just about home when I noticed an eagle soaring above the treetops.  This is the second sighting in the same area within the past month.  

I haven't had any new birds appear at the backyard feeders but the Canada geese are paired up and they fly low over the yard on their way to the lake ice.  

I hope the forecast is wrong.  I love winter but even I am ready to see some green.