February is the longest month of the year in my opinion, never mind what the calendar says. It just drags on and on. It is too cold to go out much. While the daylight is beginning to lengthen, darkness still comes early and stays late. There are few opportunities to do much of anything. Besides, I’m not in the mood for much other than hibernation.
Meanwhile, out at the lake at Middle Creek the water fowl are beginning to gather for migration. A few Canada geese stay year round. More begin to come throughout the winter. Sometime around Christmas tundra swans begin to show up in ever greater numbers. Then, in February, the snow geese begin to arrive.
At the moment the lake is largely frozen over. Snow cover makes the paths less inviting if passable at all. Yet there are reports of snow goose arrivals. By the end of February or early March hundreds of thousands of geese will pass through on their way north to summer breeding grounds.
Nearer home, under that snow cover the Lenten Rose already lies waiting for the first rays of sun.
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