We’ve gone from winter to summer in less than a week.

This was the view from Big View Prairie last Monday.

And this is the same view on Thursday.

Now the snow is completely gone except for a few piles in the woods, and the non-native grasses are already starting to turn green.

The first Red-winged Blackbird arrived a week ago – he sang alone for about a day and then the rest of the flock arrived – now the wetland is full of singing Blackbirds.

The Woodcocks are doing their mating dance at dawn and dusk – I heard at least 4 Woodcocks in the wetland, and another 2 or 3 near the house. I watched two Woodcocks do something that I’ve never seen before – one gave a quick buzzy sound – almost like a frog croak. Then the two birds flew up, side by side, twittering, up to at least 50 feet above my head.

A few days ago I watched a male grouse with all his tail and neck feathers fluffed out, chasing a female across a hillside.

There are big flocks of migrating Robins in the woods.

And flocks of Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese flying over.

Canada Geese

We had a few cold mornings when it went below freezing – here are some ice crystals on Prairie Dropseed.

But today it’s hot – 77 degrees – and there’s a tornado watch. The clouds are spectacular and it’s very windy – gusts up to 39 mph.

The animals are all awake now. Here are a couple of raccoons. (The second one is in the top right corner of the photo.)

And an opossum. Two opossums were sitting in the leaves on the hill above the house.

One day was so misty that I couldn’t see past the Y in our driveway. The trees and prairies look beautiful in the mist.

The first Lepidoptera I saw this year was an Infant moth (Archiearis infans) – Infants are small, bright colored, day-flying moths that emerge in the early spring. They like to sit on the wet parts of the gravel driveway. When they’re resting, they’re pretty inconspicuous – mostly brown with just tiny bit of orange showing.

I spent a lot of time following them around trying to get a photo of their beautiful orange hind wings.

Their wings are bright orange underneath too, but I couldn’t get any of them to sit still enough for a photo of that.

Their bodies and heads are dark and furry.

A few days later the butterflies came out – the ones that over winter as adults. I saw at least four Mourning Cloaks and two Eastern Commas. Here’s an Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)

There are tiny plants starting to grow in the bluff prairies. I think this one is Silky Aster.

The frog pond is full of water but I haven’t seen or heard any frogs yet.

It’s so nice to be able to take pictures that don’t have snow in them!