Into the sun

After months of slowly watching the morning light replace the black of night on my morning walks, it comes as shock that the weekend time change tosses me back into the night again. It just doesn’t seem fair. Bad enough that I am now rising at “4:30 a.m.” instead of 5:30 a.m. The return to darkness only makes the switch all the more difficult.

On a brighter note, this morning marked the first appearance of an eastern phoebe this year. I stepped outside the cabin and was greeted by that familiar call. The bird was singing and sitting beside the deck. Almost immediately, the bird was swooped by an unhappy pileated woodpecker, perhaps thinking the phoebe was singing too close to its nesting territory.

The local sharp-shinned hawks are more visible this weekend, as well. As I was eating breakfast on Saturday, one flapped easily over the back deck, no doubt trolling for its own breakfast. From how the bird was moving, a likely breakfast candidate was not yet in evidence.

And still I haven’t seen any signs of new green growth. Even down in the valley, only very small patches of grass look green. Up on the mountain, there is no sign of that, even where there is grass.

My neighbor the ski resort closed on Sunday. Hardly any snow is left on some of the slopes, and I believe the snow was worse than I’ve ever seen it while the resort was open. Over on the side of the mountain where I live, I don’t ever hear much sound from the resort, but this morning I could tell the mountain was quieter. Spring is here.