Saturday, April 11, 2009

Spring is here with a vengence

The switch from winter to spring is very dramatic this far north. In the last few weeks it is like someone suddenly flipped a switch and the cold dark days disappeared. Now the days are much longer and it is much warmer and sunnier. Flowers are coming up everywhere and the trees are putting out new leaves. The other day I saw spiderling threads all over the dead weeds from the winter and a small herd of deer next to one of the lakes has suddenly reappeared (a buck and three does). Last night just after the sun went down I saw a bat out, first one I've seen this year. A few days ago the years first thunderstorms came through and it lightninged and poured rain for a few hours.

One thing I was wondering about. A while back it was very dark at night and I heard a coot (Blesschen(sp?) in German) out on the lake. They have a very short, sharp "tick" sound they sometimes make and this one was doing it. I couldn't help but wonder if the sound echoed off of the bank and trees at the waters edge and helped the coot echolocate in the dark, to know how far it was from the bank. ?

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