There was still ice this week on Clements Pond, which surprised me. Otherwise, the trail was clear – one of the few that aren’t muddy. About a mile-and-a-half through hardwood forest to the pond. I saw a Northern Harrier (Marsh Hawk). I think this might be one of the first arrivals of the migrating spring hawks. They like open fields and wetlands. The Rough Legged Hawks are long gone, migrating back north. Yesterday on my drive to Lake Champlain I saw a pair of Osprey, sitting on an electric pole. No doubt planning a nest.
We’ve had a bout of electricity outages the past few weeks. Most of them have been short-lived, but they’ve caused longer interruptions in internet service. It’s good for me to be reminded how much I depend on the internet, since I’m still looking for a place to live and much of the area does not have internet service.
I notice that the pictures I’ve taken the past month look bleak. By next month there will be more color in the landscape. When I first moved to the North Country I hated the spring, because the weather is so topsy turvy and it’s muddy on the trails. Now I enjoy spring. Part of it is breaking free of the long hard cold winters, but it’s also the movement that I enjoy – something that doesn’t show up well in a photograph. The water begins moving, there are little animals scurrying around. Birds are returning. There’s a sense of things about to happen.