Sunday, February 3, 2008

The groundhog is wrong!

Even though there is still lots of snow lying around, I can see spring creeping up on us. Yesterday, the varied thrushes were under the feeder happily scrounging the bits of suet dislodged by the finches. Today, the starlings have also appeared. I always forget how beautiful they are all decked out like Pearly Kings. The squirrels are chasing each other around the trees with renewed energy. And this morning, the Stellars jay began his greeting with his customary "chack, chack" but then did some very fancy whistling that I swear I've never heard before. Of course, they may do this all the time and because I didn't recognise it (until it came out of the jay's throat) wouldn't have known. But I like to think it's a special paean to spring.

And, the raccoons! Their appearance on our deck had more to do with snow and cold than with spring but they were such a treat to watch. Last fall, we decided to keep the large wicker chairs on deck but covered in plastic to the floor. Two youngish raccoons have found a nice place to wait out the cold by climbing up under the plastic of one. We did wonder why the snow had slid off the cover of that one chair and not the other. The best part was when the raccoons heard us in the house, they would slide out and walk over to the door hoping for a handout. Very hard to resist!

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