The ice is melting on Lake Pepin. Every year we hope to watch it break up, but we always miss it. Last Thursday the ice was melting away, and there were big patches of open water with Bald Eagles sitting around them.

At the farm I saw the first spring butterflies.

Mourning Cloak

Eastern Comma

Compton Tortoiseshell

And there are dozens of the Infant Moths.

This is the underside of an Infant – it’s difficult to get a photo of the underside, but you can see the bright orange when they fly.

They like to sip liquids from wet, sunny places on the driveway. I took a short video of them walking around.

Other insects are out too.

Velvet mite (Family Trombidiidae) – mites aren’t actually insects – they’re closely related to spiders.

Wooly Bear Caterpillar – the adult is called an Isabella Tiger Moth

This is a “microlep” – or Microlepidoptera – the name that entomologists give to very small moths – there are so many and I don’t know enough to identify any of them.

It’s no wonder that all the insect-eating birds are back!

The woodchucks are back too – they emerged from the cliff behind the house about a month ago, but they’re around much more now that the weather is warmer.

The Wild Turkeys are displaying – the males spread their huge tails, and follow the females around. They don’t like being observed so this is the best photo I could get.

There’s still snow in the woods.

And on some of the trails. This is Western Road – our farm road up through Western Valley.

Most of the snow is gone from the prairies and openings.

Starflower Opening

I worked on some of the overgrown edges of Sumac Prairie, cutting back Prickly Ash and trying to liberate some of the big, old oaks.

Here’s one of the old oaks surrounded by Prickly Ash.

This is an area I cleared of brush.

Sumac Prairie is our steepest south-facing prairie, so it usually has the first flowers in the spring. I went looking for flowers, but didn’t find any. I did find tiny plants coming up – so small that I can’t identify them all.

These are only about ¼ inch high.

This is slightly taller – maybe as much as ½ inch.

This is a sandy depression on Sumac Prairie, where I usually find the first flowers. It gets very hot here with sun and all the bright yellow sand.

I saw two Wood Ducks swimming on our neighbors’ pond.

This morning it was snowing again.