April dealt some very varying weather; ice storm one day and a week later temperature of 30°C (86°F). Lots of snow on the ground for the first week or so, then nothing by the middle of the of the month.
The Rideau River was at full spring run in the middle of the month. It was a normal run off, little severe flooding. Hogs Back Falls was its usual torrent of water through the small channel.
I don't have exact comparison shots, but the first picture is looking up to the dam in mid-summer, the second a narrower view towards the dam in the run off.
The ice storm produced some eye-catching photo ops....
....but it did an immense amount of damage. Some people were without power for 6-7 days. Everywhere you went there are trees and/or large branches down. The clean-up will be several months long
The tree in our front yard is a mock crabapple that normally does not attract birds, but this year the beautiful bohemian waxwings caught my eye as they visited the tree for the first time ever.
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At the end of the month a house finch was pruning some of the flower buds from the same tree.
Less fruit for me to pick up in the fall!
The forest where I have produced a good many "Walks in the Forest" had finally shaken off its snow covering, I was not expecting to find any spring flowers yet, but a few earlier than normal buds/blossoms caught my eye.
A very early white trillium bud on the left and hepatica on the right. Spring beauties were also out but defied my taking a decent image of them.🙄
While walking in some woods an hour south of us, masses of red trilliums caught my eye. Not only were there many trilliums, but they were about 2 weeks ahead of when I expected to see them.
Turtles were up sunning themselves in several locations and the "spring peepers" (frogs) started peeping in mid month. At one marsh at the end of the month, the peeps had turned to a chorus of normal frog croakings.
On a day jaunt we noticed columns of steam raising from farmers' fields, they defied being photographed, but later in the day it seemed there had been a mass hatch of "no see'ums", tiny flies in columns of clouds along the side of the road. The specs on the windshield are no see'ums, not birds flying by.
The sandhill cranes have finally followed us from Florida.
At Cooper's Marsh several small groups flew by and much squawking could be heard in some areas.
Spring was much in evidence at Parc Omega with new wild pig litters and the cinnamon bears out of hibernation.
Mud Lake's turkeys were a little rowdy at the start of April, but calmed down by the third week.
A pair of cardinals, side by side, caught my eye.
The opportunity, not often seen, yielded a so-so photo.
A snapping turtle and osprey caught my eye while on a day trip to northern NY State.
(The Asian Buffet in Ogdensburg certainly caught the attention of my stomach!)
