Spring, bursting

Thanks to the continuing frigid air -- and attendant snow -- over the east coast while I basked in Costa Rica, nothing in New Jersey looks much different than it did when I left two weeks ago. At least a few spring flowers (the cultivated kind) are poking their heads up in the garden. The birds are belting out their songs from treetops and fence posts all over Cape May, and the first migrants are beating their way northwards. We had Snowy and Great Egrets flapping hard against the north winds this morning, crossing the bay from Delaware to New Jersey, and most of the big scoter flocks are gone, on their way to the high arctic for the summer.