After an almost complete absence over the winter months we now have birds galore again around the acreage. They have found and emptied the feeders of the leftover seeds from last fall, so I really need to get back in the habit of filling them again. So far we have seen the usual army of robins, who have been mating with each other seemingly non-stop for weeks now, and a scattering of little sparrows, a couple of red wing blackbirds (probably just passing through, we have yet to see any nest here) some crows, a blue jay, a mourning dove and some various finches.

As a kid I was sort of indifferent to the season of spring, which seemed to me to stand in the way of the very important season of summer. My mother always loved spring and when we were out and about she would point out, and name, the various flowering trees, bushes and ground flowers. I remember being impressed that she knew so many names of the spring flora, but still, I saw the season as a pause before the real deal of summer. As I have grown older I have come to enjoy the spring much more, which might have something to do with liking winter much less. Summer is still great (but it seems to be getting hotter and dryer) and autumn might be the best if it led into spring and not winter.

I checked out a book from our local library recently titled The Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare. I came across a lovely poem in it titled, simply, “Spring.”

Now the slim almond tree

Tells April soon will be

Scattering her petals where

Snow still lies cold and bare.

Birds in its leafing boughs

Echoes of spring arouse.

Piercing the drowsy earth,

Crocus her flower brings forth –

Wooing the bees. And soon

Winter’s ice-silvered moon

Shall melt, shall kindle on high

Springtime within the sky.

Except for a chunk of January, now being called “the two-week winter” it has been a very warm winter here in Iowa, as well as around much of the country, with late February seeing a couple of days hitting the low 70s.

Now that it is March this winter season is officially the warmest one on record for Iowa, and this abnormally warm weather continues.

Shelly spotted two opossum close to the garage while walking to the house. She was able to keep our dog Steve from them, as we have decided they must be eating the mice around the acreage, and so we want to keep them around. We still have had no mice in the house or garage this winter, which is a first since we have lived here.

Some birds are finally back; our first robins were spotted on the acreage February 25, right around the time we saw the first flies this year. Even though winter took it easy on many of us this season we are greatly anticipating the glorious sights and smells of spring.

Since my last Acreage Update posted January 10^th we here in Iowa have experienced light snow, a “snow squall”, blizzards, frigid cold, heavy snow, wind gusts of 35 to 45 mph, whiteouts, drifting snow, road and school closures and an Arctic air mass. When it finally began to warm up we had a dense fog advisory every day until the end of January. Now we are experiencing some record high temperatures, with highs from the 40s into the low 60s. So far it looks like it really is a leap year, skipping over February into March. In some places it has been reported flowers are blooming! Some are predicting we will get “payback” for our current nice weather. That could be, but I am thinking we have prepaid for it with that horrible January. And we have Phil on our side, having predicted an early spring this year.

I saw a cat prowling around the acreage recently but I think it has moved on as I see no scat or tracks. However, we still have no mice in the garage or house. And I filled up all the bird feeders before the crazy winter weather hit, and they are still full. Strange…something different is going on this season.