A poet wrote “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” For Juneau in 2013, the answer is Yes! We’ve had, I think, three big snowstorms in April. Another poet wrote: “April is the cruelest month…” and, this year (so far!), that seems appropriate (with apologies to said poets for taking their lines quite out of context! Also to my long-gone eleventh-grade English teacher, who would be rolling her eyes and shaking her head, because the lines floated into my head, out of context, but not the poets; I had to look ‘em up to refresh my so-called memory. Sorry, Miss Dahl!).

The ice is just starting to melt on my home pond, so there is a little open water at both the inlet and the outlet. As soon as there were a few square yards of open water, a pair of mallards moved in. They rested on the edge of the ice, dabbled in the shallows, and gobbled up sunflower seeds spilled from the feeders that hang over the pond.

Most folks know that flowers often produce nectar to attract pollinators — animals that carry pollen from one flower to another, enabling seed development. Less well known is the widespread occurrence of nectar outside of flowers, produced by “extrafloral nectaries.” All nectars typically contain simple sugars such as glucose, fructose and sucrose, amino acids, some defensive compounds to deter microbes, and various micronutrients.

On a nice day in winter, one can sometimes see little dark spots on the surface of the snow. But unlike most dark spots, these jump! They can jump distances many times longer than their own bodies. It’s a rather uncontrolled leap, almost random in direction and the landings are awkward, often upside down or head-first.

These are the so-called “snow fleas.” A total misnomer — they are not fleas at all!