Snipe in my backyard

At dinner tonight (during a lively geophysical discussion between the prof and the kids about the earth's magnetic field, which I admit was somewhat lost on me) I spotted a snipe in our backyard -- it seemed to have descended on our wet lawn, thinking it had found a marsh! Yes, around our house the snow is indeed mostly melted now (BTW, we did break the record with 137 inches this winter)!

Snipes do nest in the wetlands at the Nature Center, but this is a first sighting at my house -- we're a good way above the valley floor... I'm sure he'll move on soon, although he did stick around (staying perfectly still) while I was fussing about the flowerbeds -- now that the snow is gone, I was fishing out the candles that had fallen down from the deck (ice-lanterns at Winter solstice). This past winter, at one point, we could practically sled from the deck into the backyard -- that's an advantage of never having built a railing and being able to dump the snow directly off the side... Now it's time for me to dig out the planter boxes for a visual edge, and start hinting to hubby that maybe this summer we should think about building that railing after all !?! Rail sightings being rare around here (hee hee).

Yup, spring is here!

photo credit: http://www.birdforum.net