It’s still snowy here, with cold days and nights, but I’m starting to see a few signs of spring.

Yesterday I found a few willow flowers.  Male willow flowers – the fuzzy pussywillows – start blooming very early, usually by the end of February.  At first there are only a few, but in a week or two, with some more warm weather, I should be seeing whole branches of flowers.

 

The buds on the Silver Maples are getting bigger – but not quite blooming yet.

 

As the snow melts off the roofs of the house and the garage, it makes a thicket of icicles on the plant stalks  under the eaves.

 

But it’s still winter.  Every few days we get a snowstorm – usually only a few inches each time, but one night this week we woke up to six new inches.

Indian Grass Point on one of the snowy days

 

Hidden Oaks Savanna

 

Path along the Knife Edge

 

Another view of the Knife Edge Path

 

A daytime coyote picture from one of the wildlife cameras

 

This is one of the Sharp-shinned Hawks that’s been visiting our bird feeders nearly every day.  This is the smaller one – possibly a male.  There’s also a larger one that I see less often – maybe a female.   I haven’t seen either one of them catch anything.

 

Winter sky over our wetland and Praag Valley