Warm!

 Would you look at THAT?!  Seventy degrees today! And finally, after 9 days of heavy-duty antibiotics to treat an intestinal infection, I felt well enough to venture out for a walk today. Well enough, anyway, for an easy walk on a cleared pathway like that of the Spring Run Trail right here in Saratoga Springs.  So that's where I headed, wearing only a sweater and rejoicing under a clear blue sky.

My hope was to maybe find our first flower of spring blooming along this little woodland brook.  But the depth of the snow remaining on the banks soon tempered my hopes that I might find Skunk Cabbage in bloom. Yes, I know that Skunk Cabbage can create enough heat to melt the snow around it, but not when that snow is still a foot or more deep!

I did find a Skunk Cabbage spathe or two protruding from shallow water at the edge of the brook, but they hardly seemed any more advanced toward blooming than they had appeared last fall.  But it won't be long. The spathes did seem to be coloring up a bit.

Meanwhile, today's warmth and bright sun were melting the snow at a rapid rate, so the larger stream that runs along Spring Run Trail was rushing with great vigor.

And the willows leaning over the stream did appear to be a bit yellower than when I last walked this way.

And here at last was a definite sign of spring:  the male Redwing Blackbirds were back in the marsh!  I could hear them, first, their buzzing calls, and after standing quietly for many minutes, I finally spied one flitting about the Phragmites stalks, possibly selecting a nesting site to defend until his mate arrives when the spring advances.