It’s cold here. That’s normal for this part of Michigan in early spring, but this spring has been unusually cold. We had January temperatures and snow earlier this week. There were a few days when the lawn was bare and we even had robins (a bird that shows up in the spring in this part of the country). But now the grass is covered with snow again and the robins are nowhere to be seen. We are all tired of it and complaining.
Last year, we had freakishly hot weather in March. It was so warm that all the fruit trees bloomed early. We then had a killing freeze in April that wiped out most of the fruit tree blossoms. This resulted in most orchards only having about 10% of their normal crop. I love Michigan apples, cherries and peaches, and they were hard to find and expensive last summer because of this. I can see that the chances of a good fruit crop are probably much higher this year.
Now, some bird pictures. Here are some of starlings in flight:
We had a hawk here too, who was brave enough to sit on my deck with me in the window! I’m not 100% sure about the identification, I think it’s a broad-winged hawk but if anyone who reads this needs to correct me, please do. He was snacking on some of the other birds that have been visiting my house!
Edited to add: This is a juvenile Cooper’s hawk. I had him identified by a naturalist at our local nature center. They can be tricky to ID especially when they are still young. This one will have his first birthday this year!
This Finngarian Mama 
Same goes to Finland, it’s been colder than normal, but it’s ’cause this polar vortex that has turned to Finland, instead the warm air has gone to Siberia. Well, it will change soon.
And lets hope that the volcano Katla doesn’t go off this spring…
http://www.livefromiceland.is/webcams/katla/
It is still cold here where I live. Usually by now I have at least crocuses but those aren’t even blooming yet. Everything is really late. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I checked out yours and I’m following it now. I’m always looking for interesting blogs from Finland!
PS I had no idea there were volcano webcams in Iceland! Are they saying Katla is going to go off? That was a huge mess when that other one (that I cannot spell) went off!