I’d been exploring the mighty Bow River from where it left the city down to the Carseland Weir and McKinnon Flats

It was the third time in three days that I'd been exploring the mighty Bow River from where it left the city down to the Carseland Weir and McKinnon Flats.

The first time I’d stopped there, though, it was too nasty to do much.

The wetness and soft light made the reds of the rose hips and leftover leaves glow, helped the expanding saskatoon buds shine a soft green.

There had been some snow in the fields as I’d rolled along but the further east I went, the more there was.

By the time I got to Legacy Island turn there was at least five centimetres of it covering everything.

I found a meadowlark singing from a snow-covered bale and robins thronging the roadsides looking for worms.

At a small pond, a pair of hooded mergansers, the female with a definite case of bed-head, a flicker at its nesting cavity in a fallen cottonwood.

So I crawled back up to a dry spot, got to my feet and headed back to the truck to warm up. My third visit to McKinnon Flats turned out to be the best one but now it was time to go home. The sun was shining and the day was pleasantly warm. There were frogs singing in the ponds and ice melting on the river banks. Birds everywhere, the snow all gone. And I smiled as I drove along. It’s springtime in the Bow River valley..