It's Happened Again

It's happened again. I went to the Woods yesterday late in the day for a quiet walk and found that spring happened this weekend. It is on that one or two days when all the boxelder in the understory all unfurl their leaves.. coinciding with the flush of green young woodland grasses and Stellaria bedstraw on the forest floor and simultaneous with the flush of the leaves of Symphoricarpos deer bush in the shrub layer. It takes the Woods from the bare pending promise of early spring, to the full sprint of spring growth like a runner bursting from the blocks.
This evening out in the Woods there were 10-12 deer in a herd, more than I've seen this year. I stopped and sang to them in my normal voice as I usually do and they stood in place staring. Then I shifted to a lower register and most of them ran. No turtles this year so far. Both ponds are brimming full at 2.2 ' in depth or greater. The redbuds are out full and the tree loop is glorious, although the wild plum is now fading.