Onset

Spring officially and quietly slipped onto the stage three days ago . So quietly, in fact, that her entrance could easily have gone unnoticed. No fanfare save Jack Frost’s last frigid gasp. An angry late winter sleet storm.

Yet subtle signs of approaching Spring are present. She has not yet donned her radiant vernal robe. But a warmer sunlight is slanting through the trees at a different angle. And the daffodils are poking through the dirt a tull 3 inches.

Robins are back!!

The maples are stretching their limbs after the long winter’s sleep. And tiny red buds signal forthcoming arrival of a curtain of bright green leaves. The Hideaway will become a secret again.

The Hudson, Sawkill and Hideaway Pond are now free of ice. Flocks of mallards have enjoyed the warming waters of the pond for the past week. Perhaps they’ll be joined by some of their winged brethren–wood ducks, hooded mergansers and canvasbacks– before instinct pushes all of them northward on the feathered freeway.

A few intrepid squirrels have emerged from their dens early. They seek acorns that they buried last year. And lost. Some of Mother Nature’s critters are purely fictitious. A smart squirrel is one of them.

Armies of turkeys have stormed the yard. Their main objectives are seeds that smaller birds have dropped from the feeders. A large tom fell in love with his own reflection in the front storm door. And went into full flair. Embarrassing.

The bass and grass carp still sulk in their winter torpor at the dark cold bottom of the pond. But within a month, they too will be stirring. The carp to enjoy the first green sprigs of new marine grasses. And the bass to spawn a generation of fish children who will spend their hapless lives eluding the cannibalistic instincts of their parents. Tough love.

So the Hideaway is beginning to segue’ into Spring. A new family of woods critters will blink their way into the bright Spring sunlight. The palette will turn from Winter’s grays and whites to Spring green. The onset of new life on Hideaway Pond.