Spring's Here

Today I will say that spring is here. We had a nice gentle rain on Weds and it greened things up in about two days.
After the heavy snow at the end of March it started to warm up and melt the snow pack. Things looked good until Sat just after dark on the 14 of April. We had a good old fashioned spring snowstorm. We ended up with 10-12 inches of snow with plenty of wind and drifting. The Robins had already migrated North and a late winter snow cuts off most of their food supply. By about the 20th of April the snow was once again pretty much gone, the shaded areas still had snow.
Ice out on our lake came on May 2 and 3. The end of the lake we are on is a large shallow bay which was ice free on the 2nd. By the end of the 3rd the bigger deeper part of the lake had opened up. Our fishing opener in Wisconsin was on May 5 and there were a number of area lakes that were still ice bound. They're all ice free now on the 11th of May. I saw my first Baltimore Oriole this morning. It looks like everything has started to leaf out.
Here are some of the pictures of the last month.

Cooper's Hawk doing some hunting in the yard on the 12th of April.

American Goldfinch on the 13th of April. I believe this is a female.

Snow on the deck April 16th. 2 deer laying under a pine near the lakeshore. The deer were not excited to have to dig though the snow for food.

The 27th of April brought the Red Fox out looking for an easy meal. I've only seen one other, and that was last spring. I hope he likes Chipmucks, we have plenty.

Muskrat busy doing what Muskrats do. April 30th was a busy day nature wise.

Early in the afternoon I was able to get this picture of one of the local resident River Otters having a lunch of Northern Pike on the ice. As I was moving to a better vantage point an immature Bald Eagle came down and tried to take the food away. The next picture that I got was the Eagle on the ice wondering how his meal disappeared so quickly. Then he flew away. About 7:30 that evening a mature Eagle landed on the ice looking for food.

This pic taken at 8pm on May 1st shows the ice situation. By morning our end of the lake was ice free.

Maple tree blossoms, deer in late day sun, Northern Flicker looking for a meal, and a Blacked Cap Chickadee having a bite to eat. Taken May 2-3.

Sunset on 3 May, 2018.

Our house from the point across the lagoon. The house kind of disappears once the trees leaf out.

The sunset on the 6th of May was very nice. The deer and the Muskrat both came by to watch the sunset with me out on the point. The muskrat came out of the water and actually past within 10 feet of were I was set up, I didn't move, it was very neat.
That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed.
I have a trip planned for early June with my friend Art to Sturgis, SD for the Cushman Motor Scooter National Rally. It should be a great time.
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