Spring is almost here!!

I woke this morning to find that last night's rainstorm had left me some Mergansers...

There are mallards and hooded mergansers to go along with the common ones here, but the common mergansers are new to my experience of our backyard pond.

Also, the rainstorm melted a LOT of ice and snow. It's hard to believe that just yesterday there was still a complete layer of ice covering the pond... that has been there since December!! It's almost clear enough for Noah to pull out his canoe again!

The snow berms that made our driveway feel so big when you had to shovel but so small when you had to park two cars in it have all but disappeared! The ground is soggy and green, but there are still little snow flurries in the air. It's not quite spring, but it's not far off.