Open water

Although signs of spring can be found—phoebes, spring peepers and the like—the landscape around Roundtop is still winter brown, with nary a blade of green in sight.  That will change shortly, I’m sure, but for now brown is the predominant color on the trees, on the ground, everywhere.   And with it comes the Mud season, which is not a favorite of mine, just barely an improvement over the long winter, now passed. 

Spring is slow to start this year, in part because winter eased later than usual, but some of it is simply my own impatience to see better weather and something new to look at.  I have put away the down parka for another year, though my insulated coat remains handy, just in case.  The mornings are still damp and therefore chilly, and when a bit of wind is added, the insulated coat blocks that wind better than my lighter spring jackets.

This morning I saw the season's first osprey, plying the air above the Yellow Breeches Creek, and two swallows, identified as tree swallows more by the early date than by any plumage I could see.  Spring is coming, though the landscape is still more wintry than not.