First Signs of Spring. Ignore the Snow

Yeah.  It snowed last night.  Quite a bit, too.  But that's nothing new for March in Saratoga County. 

Meanwhile, my friends and I went looking just yesterday for signs of spring along the Spring Run Trail in downtown Saratoga Springs. And yes, we did find some.  As soon as we stepped onto the boardwalk that crosses the marsh at the east end of the trail, we could hear the Red Winged Blackbirds raucously calling: Conk-a-REEEE-a! A spring song, for sure!  The guys are back in town, choosing and defending nest sites for their mates, who will arrive a bit later.

We even saw a few blackbirds, too.  Too far off for my camera to get a good picture of, but this one that I took at the same time and location a year ago I could have taken today (cattails and alder catkins and all), if only one had flown close enough.

We enjoyed a few other bird sightings too.  A Red-tailed Hawk made several passes overhead, so we got to check each other out.

I was only able to briefly glimpse that Red-tail today,  but I have seen other hawks on other walks along this trail.  Lots of snags stand in the trailside marsh, and that's where this Cooper's Hawk (?) was perched before it took flight.

Look up, and see birds.  Look down, and see . . . what?  Just scads of Snowfleas, tiny hexapod springtails crawling and hopping across the snow surface.  Not exactly a sign of spring, since we find these tiny bugs on the snow in deep winter, too.  But they do seem to congregate on the snow's surface on winter's warmer days.

Here's a closer look at the Snowfleas.  They are not actually fleas, in fact they're  not even considered to be insects, despite their six legs.  They don't bite, either.  But they sure do hop, thanks to the spring-loaded appendage on their rears that can send them flying considerable distances.  There were at least five more critters in this picture at the moment I pressed the shutter button. But poof! Before the shutter clicked, they'd just disappeared!

On a nearby fallen log, this lovely frieze of Turkey Tail fungus was nearly as colorful as when it had emerged last fall.

At the very eastern end of the Spring Run Trail, a tiny brook courses through a woods. It looks as if my friends have spotted something of interest here.

Yes indeed, they did! One of those interesting things was this deep-red, bulbous, twin-spathed Skunk Cabbage plant, newly emerged from its winter bracts and actually demonstrating how this interesting wetland species can produce enough interior heat to melt the surrounding snow.

And just a few inches away, out in the shallow, slowly moving water, several plants had opened their spathes enough to allow us to peer at the spadices within.  And lo, the spadices were dotted with blooming flowers!  Ta da!  Here they are, folks: the very first flowers of spring!

Well, that would have been enough excitement for the day, but we continued walking along the trail until we arrived at some steep rock walls towering over both sides of the trail. These walls are most likely the remains of a bridge that passed over what is now our trail but which was once a railroad line.  The sun-warmed south-facing wall was almost completely bare of plant growth, but this north-facing wall turned out to support a plethora of shade-loving mosses, lichens, and liverworts for our bryophile friends to excitedly examine.

While I'm waiting for my moss-expert friends to inform me of the names of the plants that were clinging to this bare rock, I can safely assert that the lime-green growth shown here is a liverwort, while the spiky dark-green stuff surrounding it is a moss.

And look, some of that spiky moss (possibly Schistidium apocarpum, also known as Sessile Grimmia) had produced some red-capped spikes (most likely part of this moss's reproductive organs).

This liverwort, with its overlapping two-lobed leaves is most likely the species called Flat-leaved Scalewort (Radula complanata).

This moss had a beautiful fluffy appearance and was radiantly green. It sure reminds me of an Anomodon species, but that's as far as I will guess.

I do think I recognized this next moss as one of the Fissidens species (known as pocket mosses), thanks to its fern-like appearance. 

Another moss, looking a bit freeze-damaged, still sported its ruddy spore stalks. This one is possibly of the Plagiomnium genus, but species are difficult to determine without magnification.

There was even a tiny evergreen fern sprouting right out of the rock. Since many juvenile ferns look alike, I wouldn't even venture a guess about this one.

Reluctantly pulling ourselves away from this treasure-trove of a stone wall, we ambled along until we reached a bridge crossing Spring Run Creek.  Our approach was loudly announced by some Mallard hybrid ducks that were paddling there.

We also spooked a pair of White-tailed Deer who had been grazing in the nearby woods.

I know this bridge as the site where dozens of gorgeous blue Great Lobelia plants bloom in the summer, and sure enough, we could still find their now-desiccated stalks, studded with the spent seed pods along the stems.  I thought the empty seedpods vaguely resembled tiny big-eyed birds.

Returning the way we came, we stopped to examine some Northern Prickly Ash shrubs, delighted to find the swelling red buds that will soon produce male and female flowers on separate shrubs. I'm not sure if the sex of the shrub can be determined by the appearance of the buds.

A happy morning, spent with good friends on a trail that rendered many unexpected pleasures along with definite signs of spring. And now we are off to more pleasure together, at a nice Thai restaurant downtown for lunch !