Winter gives it one more try…

Yikes! What a difference 24 hours can make with March weather. Temps reached into the 60s yesterday afternoon, and by 10 am this morning, this was the scene at the pond in Estabrook Park. The snow started around sunrise and came down pretty good for a while. Where it melted the least, as on the couple of wood-deck bridges along the paved path through the park, I’d bet we had a good 3 inches of accumulation.

The Canada geese, who’ve been here all winter, seemed unfazed.

But the phoebe, whom we first saw just yesterday, was probably contemplating its recent travel choices. The good news is that temps will be back into the 40s tomorrow, after a chilly overnight.

I didn’t spot anybody new today, but it is always a treat to spot a great horned owl.

I saw wood ducks on the river and the pond, and here’s one of the latter.

Finally, here’s another critter, my first eastern chipmunk of the year, who might also be second guessing its choice of weeks to come out of hibernation.

Lastly, while it was still nice and warm yesterday afternoon, I found these greater snowdrops already in blossom over at the Shorewood Nature Preserve. Let’s hope their name rightly implies that they are made for this weather.

It is difficult for me to predict how the trails in Estabrook might be tomorrow morning, and we’ll minimize our time on them if they are too bad, but if you come out to join our weekly wildlife walk, which I hope you do, please wear shoes up for the job.