It just ain’t April without Graupel

What a morning! It rained, it poured, the wind blew, we even got a tiny, but oh so necessary, dose of graupel, and then the sun came out. PS: that title rhymes if you don’t know how to pronounce graupel.

Anyway, when I arrived at the pond, the skies looked threatening, the air was foggy, and it was a great morning for sleeping in.

Even this poor yellow-bellied sap sucker over the island appeared to be nodding off.

As I approached the beer garden, it started to rain, and that’s when we got a little graupel. It soon let up, however, and I started to continue north, but then the skies really opened up, and I hustled back under the roof at the beer garden to wait it out. It didn’t last long, thankfully, and by the time I finally made it to the north end, the sun came out, the sky turned blue, and it was perfect timing for capturing this young-looking peregrine falcon over the northern island. I suspect it was just trying to dry out its feathers, not put on a show for us, but I enjoyed it anyway.

All around the northern island, there was a slew of blue-winged teals, and here’s a drake.

I counted twenty teals in all, and here’s my best attempt at a group shot, necessarily through the sticks.

As I swung back by the pond, I found this little red squirrel enjoying some salad in its diet for a change.

This time, the goslings were up and back to stuffing their bellies with grass. Here’s my best attempt at getting all eight in tight formation.

Here’s a closeup of one, in case you’re into that kind of thing.

The wet weather meant that I had the pond pretty much to myself, so here’s a wood duck, who are on the pond pretty continuously now, but who usually draw a crowd.

Finally, the white trout lilies are starting to open, and …

the bumblebees are already hard at work.