Signs of Spring

A quickie post, I'm up to my ears in 3 (!) editing projects (I must mention my favorite, a scholarly book about a fin-de-siecle Hamburg art historian. Makes me miss all those art books in the UCI library very much.)

Deer tracks in the mud in our yard. I know, hard to see, but the kids were very excited by this.

Duck city in our little brook. Once we counted seven wanna-be Papa mallards swimming oh-so-nonchalantly behind one soon-to-be Mama mallard. Now they seem to be pretty much paired off. We're waiting breathlessly for ducklings.

Winter aconite.

Crocus. We've got purple, yellow, and white right now.

Today we noticed the first tiny green leaves on a bush in the yard, skunk cabbage near the deer prints (I'll have to take a picture tomorrow, those are some freaky plants!), and a blooming red maple. We had the first chipmunk sighting in many weeks, one zooming along the bank of the brook desperate to get away from us enormous loud humans.

The songbirds are working overtime, waking us every morning. We put out some bird seed mix on a low table by the brook, and delighted in watching a mourning dove, grackle, mallard pair, assorted finches and sparrows, and a gray squirrel all dine there. They may eat us out of house and home. The kids decided that throwing the seeds into the brook was the best way to feed the ducks, but I prefer them to come on land so I can see their silly orange feet! The blue jays and mockingbirds have become incredibly squawky, and we regularly hear woodpeckers going to town on the trees.

Coming soon: green grass!