The noisy signs of spring

Although we won´t have the traditionally known spring with green gras and flowers blooming yet, for qutie a while (end of May aproximately), I do see definite signs of spring.

Let me tell you how "our" spring looks like :)

First of all, the world around us wakes up from the silence. The silence of snow and darkness.
Things are extremly silent during winter time. Everything is still and frozen and just rests to be awaken by the longer daylight, some sunshine and the winds.

The winds are the first messangers, that travel thousands miles to tell us spring is on it´s way.
They bring the first of noises. Once the snow shakes off the trees, they start waking up and begin their stretching excercise of moving all their branches in different directions.

When the sun comes, the shadows in the snow
get different shapes.

Then the snow, that lays on the roofs of our house, the kennel building and the different sheds, starts to get heavy with the first rizing of temperatures. The warmer, the heavier the snow becomes. Once too heavy, it slides down the roofs, making a big "bang" sound. You can hear it extra well, when you are inside the house. You hear the first sound that frees the snow off the roof metal, then a long, but fast sliding sound and finally a loud, stormy-like "BAAANG".

When the sun is out and leans it´s rays against the windows, another noise is created. The dripping of icycles, which, once too big and too heavy, finally crack from the roof edge and hit the pile of snow underneath the window.

Then the Earth, half awaken, breathing through the wind and sunshine, motivates the birds. They get busier and busier as the days get longer. First time I´ve actually heared them sing this winter, was in February. That´s when the constant grayness of deep winter leaves for good.

The great tits prefer feeding in the air...

But at the end of March, they not only sing and get busier. They start to chit-chat and poke each other. The other day we watched two bullfinches fighting at the feeder by the kitchen window. I swear it wasn´t a real fight. It was a brotherly picking on each other. They had energy and they had good mood again.

while the bullfinches munch on sunflower seeds on the ground

The forest becomes alive again too. While the bears will sleep until about mid April (depending on how wet and warm it will get), there are numerous animal tracks ziggzagging the woods and meadows.

While the owl was calling it´s mate constantly for a week in a row in the beginning of March, the foxes are also on the "hunt" for a partner.

We haven´t seen "our" fox boy this year yet, but the past years he always came in April, so he still has time to show up :)

The fox boy outside our house, April 2008

And although the foxes leave their foot prints in the snow very silently, and the sharp smell of their markings (on just about every tree that stands close to the kennel and trail) obviously doesn´t have any sound, there is still something "noisy", full of life, about it.

Spring is definitely a loud time of the year!