Nothing Says Spring...

... like the cry of the redwinged blackbird staking out his territory.

A day for organization. Revitalized an old Flickr account to take advantage of the 1 Tb storage. Not understanding how Flickr can make much money from this unless they put ads in the photostream (which they haven't, yet).

Put on my new wellies (purchased at Walmart yesterday) and set off for a walk down to the lake at about 5pm. The lake is still frozen, but catkins and pussy willow have burst out in abundance in the swampy lands around the golf course during the last few days and I thought they would make a suitable springtime blip (the first that I've tagged 'spring' and not 'winter'). So I was clicking away, glad of the new wellies as I stood in the ditch, when a redwing blackbird flew up to a perch on the top of an (I think) alder to make his presence felt. So bird and catkins in one fell swoop!

On the way back home I was pleased to see a pair of Northern Flickers displaying to each other in a tree. Now this is one of my target birds, photographically speaking, so it's nice to know that they are around (and maybe about to make more little Flickers).

And while I was busy doing all of this, Mr. L. was spent the day boiling up the last of our maple sap. He didn't finish until 10 pm - luckily there's just about enough snow left to cool down the syrup at the end of the day. We listened to the owls hoot and the frogs chirrup until we were able to bring it indoors. Fabulous.

P.S. Against all odds, the golf course opened today. Only 5 days ago we were skiing on it!