Junco, Palmer's

The insanely early thaw weather continues, and we've gone from mid-winter cold to early-spring balminess in the space of 48 hours. Today felt like one of those March Madness moments when the air has lost its bite and the dark season has decided to give way to the light. It was an easy illusion to accept, what with being able to leave my jacket open during my walk and my running into a trout angler coming up from the Green Falls stream to tell me about the fish he'd just caught. (I wonder if he was using an imitation Stonefly, like the one I'd seen atop the snow recently, to lure in the trout.) Farther along, I was hoping to spot some ducks along the now ice-free edges of several ponds, but the only birds obviously active were Dark-eyed Juncos, one of which gave me the most quizzical look as I photographed the critter. "What the heck is going on with the weather," the Junco seemed to be saying. What the heck, indeed.