Early March is such an interesting time to study phenology as the earliest hints of spring emerge although much of nature is still in winter. I was able to go explore on a day where the temperature reached the low 40s and the sun peaked out from the clouds, melting the snow. The sidewalks were extremely slippery in some areas due to the thawing and refreezing of snow and the fresh layer of water on top from that days melt. In places where the snow had melted and the ground was visible, the soil had become mud with some of it carried away by running meltwater down toward the lake. The lake had some ice around the shoreline and along structures like docks but much of it has broken up or melted. In terms of animal activity, around campus, I have been seeing robins foraging on tree fruits while insects and worms are not available due to cold temperatures and snow. While on my walk, I observed common mergansers swimming and diving in the lake a little ways from shore.
Image descriptions in order: a basswood twig, water from melted snow collecting along the roads and sidewalks, hackberries frozen in ice, a common merganser on the lake, grass poking up through the snow, tracks of either a red or gray squirrel.