Can spring be far behind?

Besides the fact that we've had a most reasonable January with little cold weather and February has been more than tolerable by our standards (today is 70), as a whole the populace wonders when the other weather-shoe will drop and we'll be plunged into ice and snow in March. Or April even, because we've all seen it happen.

However, yesterday morning I saw three vees of birds, whether ducks or geese I don't know, headed north. I rolled down my car window hoping to hear them and know what it was I saw, black shadows against a gray sky, but they were too far up/the road noise too loud.

I'll just have to be satisfied that the birds know what they're doing, deserting the south in time to make it to their northern homes before all the good spots are gone.

Really, with daffodils blooming and hyacinths rising, can spring be far behind?*

*Also known as famous last words.

Three sets of geese

Driving down the road the other evening, a V of geese caught my eye. There were probably 18 of them, in regulation formation, heading west. Now it is too late in the season for any serious flight to the South and too early to return North, so I surmised this group must have made their winter home at the wetlands preserve not that far (as the goose flies) from here. Or perhaps they've settled more closely and graced a farmer or the local lake with their presence.

Just behind--and flying at a furious rate--was a smaller V, maybe 7 or 8. From wherever the larger group had taken off, these must not have heard the "Go!" voiced by the leader. They were giving it all they had to catch up and indeed they did.

But even farther behind them was still a smaller group of individuals, the ones feasting on a different pond or oblivious to their surroundings--we all know geese like that--and they were doing double-swoops with their wings.

Would they catch the main group?

I had to stop at a red light and then it changed before I could complete the drama. There wasn't anyone behind me, so I slowed down and had to smile as the little group was allowed into the larger one and their flight west continued.