April is so often the cruelest month in
Minnesota, as those first hints of spring are quickly slapped down by the return of
winter’s cold and snow.
This year’s mid-month tease, which brought sunshine and temperatures well into the
seventies for several days, helped melt much of the snowpack and the influx of meltwater break up river ice. Yet, winter wasn’t done with us yet, as the spring-like weather was soon gone, replaced by more snow and cold. The recent snows have caught many of the early bird migrants by surprise and brought huge numbers of them into area feeders.