...well, maybe not

Dearest Vermont,
Last week I talked about how spring was clearly in the air and it was great to be able to feel the change in seasons.  Now that it is actually spring, you decided to dump a bunch of snow and a good amount of cold on us.  My inner-skier thanks you.  My inner ecologist, however, is somewhat confused.
I would appreciate if you made up your mind.
Lovingly,
Jay

Although it is great to go wander around the woods in some fresh snow and then come home to drink some hot cocoa, listen to some old Avett Brothers and Old Crow, and write about nature, I honestly would rather have done this during the weather we had over the weekend.  However, complaints aside, this was a great day for experiencing nature in all her craziness.  With respect to the animals I saw, I was disappointed by the fact that I could not see any tracks — the great thing about fresh snow is that you can usually see great tracks; the terrible thing about fresh snow on top of icy snow is that the fresh snow can simply fill in the tracks.  So, on that note, I used mostly my ears (I thought I heard a field sparrow [Spizella pusilla] but the chirp was too slow so I am not sure just what it was) and my hunter's eyes — looking out for any movement in the woods and on the water.  I did find a bird I had not previously been able to identify: the common merganser, Mergus merganser.  I had seen this funky duck a couple times before but had never been able to identify it.  Also, in the same spot as the mergansers, I saw a little flock of what I thought were cormorants, but in the heavy snow I was not able to see them clearly and looking back at the pictures, they might actually be some sort of goose (now wouldn't that be a big mix-up?!).  See for yourself:

A few geese?  A few cormorants?  Who knows, but there are a couple
mergansers on the right side for sure!

Almost breeding season, birdies!

Additionally, I saw some great evidence for some, well, less intelligent animals.  I don't like to think of any animals as smarter than any others — there is no way I could build a beaver dam; however, this particular beaver definitely did not think this project through thoroughly:

Evidence of an over-ambitious beaver; this tree had a
DBH of about 66 inches

One more little thing to think about...because I sure did.  As I was eating my sandwich and wandering around the rocks, I noticed a little seed pod.  Of what?  I am not sure, perhaps a walnut (check it out below).  It got me thinking about ecosystems and first successional ecosystems in particular.  As this seed passed me by, it brushed along the coastline and then just carried on down the mighty Winooski.  How many times had this happened?  Probably millions in the life of the river and rocks!  It got me thinking about islands and how they first got populated — how many seed pods simply went right by the coastline of Hawaii before one finally got stuck there and started to take root?  I can't even fathom how many!
In the amount of time it takes to start an ecosystem, in the amount of time it takes to shape a landscape, in the amount of time it takes to evolve a certain characteristic, the 3 hours I have spent wandering and blogging are nothing more than a blink.