Outdoor Hour Challenge - Signs of Spring Bonus Challenge

For the past week and a half, we have been trying to do the Outdoor Hour Challenge's Signs of Spring Bonus Challenge. This has been rather difficult to do because it hasn't felt like spring here, even though it started on March 20th.  For many of the first days of spring so far, the ground has been covered with snow.

Nonetheless, each time we've been out, we've tried to find some signs of spring.  Here's what we found so far:

Melting ice on the pond. 

The girls enjoy using poles to crack the ice and watch the water.

They also see how deep the water is with the poles.

(Photo taken on March 27th.)

Moss in one of the pastures.

(Photo taken on March 30th.)

Warmer temperatures - too hot to wear heavy jackets.

Being able to draw in the snow with bare fingers!

(Photo taken on March 30th.)

Buds on a tree.

(Photo taken on March 30th.)

Finding interesting things on the ground when the snow melts.

The girls are holding some of the many pheasant feathers they found

in the woods in the northwest corner of the farm.

(Photo taken on March 30th.)

Some other things we noticed that didn't get photographed:  the first robin (March 30th), a migratory bird that Olivia and I had never seen before (March 30th), the frogs chirping and singing in the pond (April 1st).  The temperatures are now, on the average, in the 40s with some days in the low 50s.