In the first days of spring, there were very few wildflowers in bloom in the grasslands, but there was lots of emerging green growth.    On a nature hike through the middle Lac du Bois grasslands, there was still a bit of mud, but there were swans and ducks on the ponds and lakes, blackbirds on the marshy pothole ponds, and bluebirds, meadowlarks, and magpies in the rolling grassland hills.   Sandhill cranes flew overhead.

Shared here are some of the signs of spring – swans in the lake, sagebrush buttercups (Ranunculus glaberrimus) in bloom, pussytoes (Antennaria sp.), upland larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum), rust-infected Boechera (Puccinia monoica), an active anthill, desert parsley (Lomatium sp.), old man’s whiskers/prairie smoke (Geum triflorum), last year’s arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), snow mold, a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and emerging death camas (or nodding onion).

Shared here is a Google Photos album (with captions) – Third Day of Spring in the Grasslands

A slideshow of these photos is embedded here also: