Outdoor Mom's Journal - March

During our outdoor time this week we went....no where special. Most of our observation of nature this month was done from the home looking out or from the car since I had foot surgery at the beginning of the month.

Looking at turkeys from the car window.

We stopped along the side of the road to watch them.

(Taken on March 21, 2018.)

The surgical boot I am wearing isn't the best footwear when there's lots of snow and ice on the ground.

Yet another big snowfall - about six inches - on March 31st...

the day before Easter.

The snowfall this year has been more than we've seen in a long time. When it melts, we should have a nice pond in the west pasture.

The most inspiring thing we experienced was...seeing raptors this month. At an event that we coordinated and hosted on March 3rd, we were able to see a hawk up close.

It is cared for by the Wildlife Science Center in Stacy, Minnesota. It had a wing injury in the wild, and now lives at the WSC and does educational programming.

The other neat thing I've been seeing a lot of is groups of eagles flying together. I've never seen 3 or 4 eagles flying together until this year. It's amazing to see!

In the photo below, we were driving home from errands in Forest Lake and happened to see the eagles flying overhead. It appeared that there were two pairs of eagles in this group.  

Four eagles circling above.

(Taken on March 31, 2018.)

We were at a stoplight, so Sophia took out the camera and photographed the eagles so we could remember them.

Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)...how the earth shifts so much from season to season, yet it not noticeable. Yet, through photographs, it's clear things are shifting.

For example, this is a morning sunrise on March 1st. The sun is rising and I can see it through the trees from the family room in the house.

By March 25th, I need to walk to the end of the driveway and look to the northeast to see the sunrise.

In less than a month, that's quite a change. 

In the garden, we are planning/planting/harvesting....still nothing. By this time in the past, we sometimes have seen early flowers and perhaps some of the strawberries in the keyhole garden begin to emerge from the ground. Not this year. The ground is still frozen solid.

We are trying to figure out how to deal with wildlife (rabbits, squirrels, and raccoons) that will eat the produce that we grow.

One of the raccoons that has been

spending time here at the farm.

They are quite agile, so fencing has to be solid

so they don't eat all the produce that we grow.

(Taken on March 3, 2018.)

I'm not sure how to deal with raccoons that clearly can climb up and over fencing.

I added nature journal pages about....nothing yet for March. I want to go back and add some photos and information about the sandhill cranes that have been migrating back. They have been gone since the Fall, so it's nice to see and hear them again.

Sandhill cranes walking in the snow.

(Taken on March 21, 2018.)

I am reading...An Eagle Named Freedom. Seems like there are so many things going on that I don't get blocks of time to sit down and read this interesting book.

Hope to have it done soon and start on a new book.

I am dreaming about…seeing flowers and green grass again. It's been a very long and cold winter. 

A photo I would like to share...Sophia, Olivia, and I were walking at Franconia Sculpture Park on March 9th. The sky was so blue and clear that day.

It made a beautiful background for some of the sculptures.



Thank you to Barb the Outdoor Hour Challenge for the idea of doing an Outdoor Mom's Journal.