March is a transition time – slow change from winter to spring.  Some days are wintry with cold and snow; some feel and smell like spring.

Sparkling frost – March 2

 

Everything is still brown, but the ground is thawing so it feels soft to walk on and some days have been so warm that we walk without coats.

 

We’ve seen some early butterflies – mostly Eastern Commas – including one on March 9 – the first one reported in Wisconsin this year.

This is an Eastern Comma from a few days later – March 13 – the first day I found one that would sit still for a photo.

 

Here’s an early day-flying moth – Infant Moth on March 27.

 

The aufeis in the Glen is melting – slowly – but the bottom of the valley is still much colder than the surrounding area.  As we walk down the hill we feel the air getting colder and colder.

This is the way it looked at the beginning of the month – March 2.

 

March 15

 

Almost gone now – March 28.

 

The snow and ground melt was more dramatic this year than it’s been for a while.  The melt water formed a fast flowing stream in 3 Finger Valley.

 

More of the melt water stream

 

Icy patterns at the edge

 

Melt water filled our Frog Pond, which had been completely dry for several years.

 

Icy patterns at the edge of the pond

 

Melt water stream flowing into the Frog Pond

 

Frog Pond

 

The melting sent flood water down the creek which washed out our old beaver dam in Willow Bend.  We’ll miss it – it was a good place to watch animals crossing the creek.

 

I did some clearing work on one very overgrown hillside.  This is the way it looked before I started – a tangled mess.  The hillside is very steep and faces west and a little south, so there are prairie plants growing growing under it all.

 

Here it is a few days later.

 

This is the way it looks from the bottom of the hill – looking up through one of the cleared spots.  I got a path cleared all the way from the top to the bottom.

 

Looking sideways along the hillside – now all I have to do is clear the rest of this.

 

A Dark-eyed Junco has been spending nights in one of the old barn swallow nests under our eaves.  It arrives when it’s quite dark, and leaves before it gets very light, so it was difficult to photograph.  It’s been using that nest for at least a month.

 

First flowers of the spring – Pasqueflowers on the Knife Edge Point

 

Woolly Bear caterpillar – the adult is called an Isabella Tiger Moth.  We haven’t seen as many of the caterpillars this year.  They spend the winter in sheltered places and come out and wander when the air temperature warms.   Once plants start to make green leaves they’ll be able to eat and grow a little more before they pupate.  They’ll start emerging as adults in May.

 

Tundra Swans overhead – we see large flocks flying over in the spring

 

March 19 snowstorm

 

Sunset

 

Volvo Meadow

 

Flooding in the creek.  When the snow is melting quickly or we get more than an inch of rain, the water rushes downstream, overflowing the lower banks and making the water murky.  Beaver dams usually help to slow the water down, but the dam here was old and not maintained so it washed away.

 

March 31 – a little more snow