Spring! And just barely April. Is it an April Fool’s joke? No: In garden corners violets and pansies are in bloom. Sage buttercups and orogenia flowers side by side in the wild. Individual leaves of grass have greened up; by tonight they will merge into lawn. Willows flaunt color in twig and branch. Disappearing snowbanks reveal forgotten items: a garden hose, the barbecue, a ski pole. Couple more spring days and I may find the snow shovel.
Yesterday, cartop racks sported skis and snowboards; today, bicycles and kayaks. I see people sunbathing, people wearing shorts. In March. Heck, I remember when nobody wore shorts in Jackson Hole — not even the pretty girls. Not even in summer. (Of course, the county didn’t spray for mosquitoes back then …)
Ground squirrels are emerging from hibernation and sitting on top of the snow. Perfect targets, one might think, for red-tailed hawks. One would be correct, for red-tails have begun to return. Sandhill cranes, too; they’ve been heard calling and seen circling over the butte.
Chipmunks scamper about. Juncoes, Cassin’s finches, robins and male mountain bluebirds examine nest boxes or nesting sites. Flickers yammer in the aspens. Trumpeter swans fly from feeding areas to inspect nesting locations still closed in ice.
And, today, a single swallow. A tree swallow, I guess. Not sure. It flew by going flat out, heading due north up the Snake River. Spring has arrived.
Whoa! First day of April. Let’s just say winter isn’t over, but the end may be in sight. Tomorrow the skis may be back on the cars.
Of course, it never pays to get too cavalier about such a mercurial force as spring.
Renewal
April! Patches of green all over, improbably green grass. In just a day huge landscapes of snow vanished. The melt water must be going directly into the ground somewhere; watercourses aren’t muddied up and don’t seem to rise. Aspen catkins have appeared, willows radiate splendid gold color. The parade of wildflower bloom has begun.
The dawn bird chorus now includes flickers as well as robins. Swallows are back. Canada geese and trumpeter swan pairs are staying close to preselected or historic territories; some are already commencing their nesting activities. Osprey and bald eagle pairs are back in business where open water permits. Cinnamon teal, pintails, shovelers and coots have returned.
Butterflies emerge and go boldly forth. Elk eye the north and yearn to move out of the valley to higher ground.
I have enjoyed this April day. But it’s very early April. Already there are cirrus clouds sweeping across the sky. Ah, well. Today was swell.
Field notes:
Spring comes in on little birds wings: bluebirds, robins, red-wing blackbirds. It’s time for the first warblers to show up: common yellow-throats, at the visitor center at the north end of Jackson.
It’s a great time to look for waterfowl and to listen for sandhill cranes. A good time to watch magpies repairing and building nests, and to remark on how quiet they can be. They don’t want to advertise where they’re building, although their big nests are pretty obvious.
Elk are moving out and sometimes back into the refuge, depending upon, presumably, weather conditions. Bears are out —don’t mess with hungry bears. Walking on the elk refuge road Sunday, Jen Tennican observed ground squirrels popping up all around and calling to each other.
Daffodils are just around the corner. Buds on some aspens are already big.
Spring comes.
