Mid-March

Wasn’t it just January, all frozen and white?

But the first colors of spring have already arrived:

Yellow daffodils pushing through patchy remnants of snow

Leaves bright green against muddy white and dull brown earth.

There is greening in the trees too – at first just the lichens on the trunks.

Then a few red or yellow buds on the trees themselves;

Just enough to displace

The stark blacks and white of winter.

~

The red-winged blackbirds came back early.

You’d catch flashes of bright red on each wing,

As they swooped

Tree to tree, up and down,

There and then gone…

And then back again.

~

The woods are (still) (mostly) quiet.

I can hear the river flowing, gurgling

And the creaking overhead of tall trees, still naked.

But over that, woodpeckers hammering-

Already busy

Strong beaks against the bark

Tapping out their afternoon meal.

~

A few weeks ago the robins reappeared:

Heavy-bodied with burnt orange – not red – breasts.

Travelling in groups of three and six – or six hundred.

It was around that time I spied a bluebird, too

and turned to follow.

It was small and moving fast,

But that brilliant, bright blue is

Unmistakable (my favorite, of course!).

~

And yes, some birds stayed all winter –

The small brown sparrows in the thickets never left.

There were so many of them! And yet

They’d fly to the next row when I approached.

And the hawks were still quite common,

Perched high up on the edges of fields.

Watching, waiting for unwary prey.

…that’s the way of things in nature.

~

But now we have a preview of spring

We can enjoy warming days,

Breathe the crisp (but no longer freezing) air

And gladly observe

The reds and blues of the birds,

The yellows of the daffodils,

Small purple periwinkles

And

The greening of the trees.