Another Baby-step Toward Spring

Chilly and dark today, compared to yesterday's sunlit warmth.  But a return to Mud Pond at Moreau revealed the inexorable progress toward spring that's occurring now.  Behold, the ice is mostly gone from the pond!  And so is the snow from most of the woods (excepting a few deep hollows).  But the big excitement today was finding this tiny flower:  the itty-bitty red sprout of an American Hazelnut female flower.  The second flower of spring!  Hooray!

I found just a few of the female flowers showing this lipstick-red fringe, and I don't believe they are open enough yet to receive any air-borne pollen from the male catkins.  As of yet, there is no pollen on the air, anyway, since the scales of the catkins are still tightly closed.

Give us a few more sunny warm days, though, and flower love will soon fill the air!