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| The Vermilon |
Sunday brought a touch of spring with bright sunshine and warm temperatures to the area. As well, I saw pass over head some Canada Geese in small flights of one or two birds. These are last year's one year olds who are now prepared to go on their own. They a tad early as open spots are still limited as the side photos show. Although the Vermilon flows all year, the little lakes and wetlands are still mostly frozen over.
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| See how cold that water looks |
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| The far bank showing the remaining snow pack. |
Open spots exist but the water here is too fast for the Geese. This particular small falls flows into a small lake area which is still frozen over. March 20Th may be your spring but it's just another day at the Vermilon. The rule of thumb here is you don't plant your garden until the 24th of May to avoid frost, and even then you may have to cover the plants against frost.
Last night we had about 2 inches of snow which has now turned to rain. The weatherman is calling for more snow tonight. Spring comes hard to The Vermilon River. As a sort of snow bonus my RedPolls have returned.
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| Canada Geese arriving. |
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| Beautiful Flyers. |
These are the small flights arriving. If you look closely in the photo, you'll see the flight leader giving commands.
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| Click to Enlarge. |
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| The true sign of spring. |
The Robin is of course the true harbinger of spring.This welcome guy was right by the river.
The other one is Boomer's fur coat which he is now starting to shed in what we Malamute owners call a blow. I brush him in the woods,creating quite a mass of undercoat which is surprisingly gone in one or two days.
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| The beginning of a spat. |
This is the weirdest sequence. He yells at her and she reluctantly moves.
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| Alright I'll move crabby!! |
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| That's the spot I want!! |
Ever seen such a bully? Remember these are non-habituated or non-urban Geese. And they're not too exited by Boomer and I even being here. So, there's lots of honking and hissing going on.
A Post to My World Tuesday @
http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/?
On my preview on the dashboard I'm still missing half the header and the photo upload doesn't show all the actual pictures although it does upload alright.Now the preview is totally blank. It would be nice to know when Blogger is doing M&R or adding code.
Great post for the day as always, Gary! It does look cold, but what a gorgeous river! And I love the birds! You and Boomer live in an incredibly wonderful, beautiful part of our world! Hope you both have a great week!
ReplyDeleteSylvia
glad you're getting bits of spring. i remember as a kid in wisconsin celebrating 50 degree days in may by showing up to school in shorts. :)
ReplyDeletelove that squacky goose! :)
awesome shot...dropping by...thanks for stopping by at my blog.
ReplyDeleteWow, you take great pictures of the snow and the river, quiet and pleasing everything. The Canada Geese flying, that is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your geese are returning. Blooming stuff is a little later here. Our date for "most likely" avoiding frost is May 15 though our latest frost is recorded for May 26, so close to your own date to be so far away geographically.
ReplyDeletenellie
The spat is something else. I can almost hear them. They got the pecking order straightened out, huh!
ReplyDeleteWonderful and interesting shots from your part of thw world.
ReplyDeleteNice shots of the snow. It's weird to see the geese walking around on the ice. Love the pretty robin.
ReplyDeleteOh, even our urban geese have amazingly loud and boisterous spats with us and each other!
ReplyDeleteI was having problems with my post as well... d**m annoying, really.
ReplyDeletehow do you do those pics with the captions, btw?
and that snow yesterday was not welcomed. not at all!
The geese in your photos are so beautiful in flight. I can certainly see where the Canadian Snowbird aviators get their flight patterns from. Beautiful shot of the red robin. He is a sure sign of spring … even if it seems to take forever in coming!!
ReplyDeleteIt feels a little odd for me to see more snow on the ground when we already reached 80F this week and all weekend was sunny sunny sunny. Hope you find spring very very soon.
ReplyDeleteHi Gary,
ReplyDeleteYou got a very nice post over there, and I love your scenery as well as the flying shots of geese.. Well done...
Great shots, Gary!! So glad to hear the geese and robins are on their way back..can't wait, love the river scenes too.
ReplyDeleteLovely shots. Spring can also come very late here, along with May and occasional June frosts. But we hardly got any snow this year!
ReplyDeleteI love the geese squabble...awesome captures, you got there. LOL like texwisgirl, I too defied cool spring weather by going to school in shorts when it was 50 degrees....too funny. Spring comes hard in WI too.
ReplyDeleteBlessYourSpringingHeart
Spring is slowly springing. (sigh)
ReplyDeleteLike that 1st capture..and the Robin? Love him dearly!
A slow spring indeed! But at least it's on its way.
ReplyDeleteGreat geese spatting shots!
Thanks Sylvia for the kind words.
ReplyDeleteA great story texwisgirl.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dhemz.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bob, sort of cold and peaceful, although that day the sun was really warm.
ReplyDeleteTo BMG. Generally speaking our weather comes from the west, your plains, our praires, and here there are no large bodies of water to moderate it.
ReplyDeleteSure did and fast Lois.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rajesh.
ReplyDeleteThey'll look funnier when there are more open spots and they slip when landing, Dina.
ReplyDeleteYes but it's the last pic when he looks down at the spot and it's just ice, Lesley.
ReplyDeleteNor the cold today VioletSky.
ReplyDeleteTo aka. Thanks for the compliments.
ReplyDeleteDid you have to give the temp,PC.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bonifer I was suprised at the Robin.
ReplyDeleteAll cold climate people are a little crazy Dar.
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad Al because you need it. Despite the snow pics the river is down because we are getting less snow every year.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dawn.
ReplyDeleteIt is ladyfi.
ReplyDeleteFunny shots of the cranky geese, Gary. I love them even though they are kind of a piggy bird that has made itself unwelcome in many places.
ReplyDeleteYa that's what I meant the geese belong in the wild, Robin.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see signs of spring after a long, cold Canadian winter - two of which I endured in the mid-'80s in Ottawa. Great pictures, Gary.
ReplyDeleteOttawa is in south eastern Ontario,Jeremy where winter passes relatively early. Boom & and I live in N. Ont. I know it's hard to grasp size. So here's a little exercise. Because I worked in Germany, let's use it.Germany would disappear if you put it in James Bay.That same example could be used for most of Europe including the UK. A small piece of Ontario and N. Quebec surround James Bay.
ReplyDeleteour snow is almost gone. waht remains is ice on the lakes. I love that colorful Robin. :)
ReplyDeleteHe's also a sign of spring and a welcome one , NF.
ReplyDelete