Spring Signs

When I went outside at 5:20 this morning to get wood for the fire in the dark, (my 2 year old got up extra early) a robin was startled awake by my noise and graciously started its morning singing.

my daughter walked on as I stopped to snap a pic.

When I walked with my daughter down to the lower barn in the early afternoon 

to shift hay 

(and hang her pirate flag from the loft)

we disturbed a pair of Canada geese warming in the sun on the dam. 

There were new crayfish chimneys. 

The pilieated woodpeckers were calling and answering with their junglebird-like cries. And I heard a red tail hawk's screech.

Later in the day, my oldest daughter reported that she had just startled 20 small ducks off of the lake during her exploratory trek around it, that the geese were still there, and the spring peeper song, strong. She also brought me some creeping Charlie blooms and maple leaf buds swelling on twigs so that I could put them in water.

the purple tablecloth is for Lent

And as I type this, 

the goldfinches are at war over the dwindling thistle supply in the feeder. 

Spring is permeating the place!