Spring or . . . ?

March marks the beginning of spring--at least "officially." Per usual, it's been the struggle of seasons with spring offering glimpses of warmth and hope between winter's cold, dying breaths. The only sign of spring on my outing this morning were the clouds of snow and greater white-fronted geese occupying the water of the White Rock Recreation Area.

Earlier in the week, and on a much nicer day, I took a short walk through the park where the robins and grackles are returning!

Little bit of everything

It's amazing that I'm awake enough to write after arriving home from the Tool show in Minneapolis at 3am and hitting my alarm at 7 this morning to go to work, but I've felt myself surprisingly vigilant today considering the depthless sleep. Perhaps the greatness of the show has propped me. But Tool's performance played second best of the weekend, upstaged by the state championship game of the Minnesota Class AA boy's hockey tournament—an instant classic, double-overtime affair which would keep anybody with half an interest in good hockey at their seat's edge.

And of course, I got out for my fair share of birding around the Twin Cities area, making a stop en route at the Crow-Hassan Park Reserve where I saw my first trumpeter swans and rough-legged hawks of the year.

Plus this very cooperative nuthatch.

This cardinal along the paths of the Kane Meadows was also photographically friendly in his perching.

The last birding venture for the weekend was a visit to the Mississippi Gateway Regional Park. No decent pictures were managed there, but I did spot my first hooded mergansers and common goldeneyes for the year!