I came to my spot this afternoon hoping to see it blossoming, having just been at home in Virginia for spring break and seen all the blooming cherry trees and flowers start to pop up, but found it looking quite the same as my last couple winter visits. Most notably, the small red maples past the marsh are starting to bud, and I think the Baswoods are as well, though it’s hard to tell or get a good photo since the branches are so high up.

In that maple patch, there are a couple of pine saplings springing up and a bit of moss I hadn’t seen before, which I identified as Fire Moss with a quick google search, distinct by the little red sprouts coming up out of it- it appears in early spring when the moss melts.

As for signs of wildlife, the usual birds nests are still way up high in the Eastern White Pines, though both seemingly vacant right now. I found a new burrow hole of a small mammal, probably a chipmunk, a few feet from the old one, which is still covered by twigs and needles- maybe it’s a new entrance or maybe a different critter moved in next door. If you stand still you can hear distant twittering, though I can’t identify what birds it belongs too, and its overpowered by the loud munching of squirrels and the highway, still noisy with a lack of foliage to buffer the sound. Here’s an audio clip of that!: