Spring Chorus

That's fragile ice.  It is simply vanishing -- when it becomes this black, with a lacey appearance, it's not long for the surface of the lake.

With the open water, three Canada Geese have returned to the bay.  It's not many years back that they would have just touched down for a short rest before continuing their northern migration.

Now, they stay.  Geri, a friend of mine who works at the University of Winnipeg and spends a great deal of time in the far North, tells me the snow geese population has exploded, and they eat down the northern tundra, leaving little for the Canadas, who compensate by simply staying farther south.

Taffy is doing her very best to be sure those geese stay off the docks. Off the lawns.  Even out of the shallow water.  She takes her job very seriously.

It is an early melt.  The earliest the ice has ever gone from our bay was March 31st.  Don't bet on that one this year.  A few more days of this 26 degree weather and that bay will be wide open, ready to welcome Vic who is anxiously waiting to get his boat in the water and drop a line over the side.

The melt isn't the only thing that's early.  The frogs are singing.  Spring peepers are in full voice, the choir loud along the creek and by the pond.  This is the earliest I can remember hearing them.   The spring peepers are a clear sign of Spring, and we love to hear them.

 It is astonishing how something that small can make that much noise.  Or music.   If you've never heard the chorus, you can listen to a short clip of them singing right here -- I recorded it near the creek beyond the horse pasture.  Enjoy.