In Northern Idaho where I live, it’s the animals who let us know spring is really here.
The other day, three snowshoe hares in transition from white back to brown were sitting on a low rock wall with the rising sun showing through their translucent ears. Several chipmunks were doing acrobatic leaps from boulder to boulder outside our kitchen window, and in the field below our house the ground squirrels were poking their heads out of their tunnels.
Mountain bluebirds (the Idaho State bird) were paired up and already nesting. You could hear woodpeckers pounding away to impress potential mates and see the wild turkeys down in the meadow with the tom’s tails spread and doing a mating dance that always looks like some crazy kid is under the ground with a magnet controlling them.
That’s what spring is like at Almost Heaven Ranch; how do you know spring’s arrived where you live?
Photo: Laura Roady
