[Update 2012-04-28] Dad just saw a red-headed woodpecker at his backyard feeder, several miles away from Fox Island. He has never seen one there before.

It’s usually another six weeks before the lake is as warm as it is now. With the lack of winter this year, and the extended heat wave, this shouldn’t be too surprising, but it still is. This heat wave is even so hot that some places have experienced lows above their record highs.

The unseasonably warm and dry weather did create excellent conditions for a 40 acre prescribed burn at Fox Island. This year we were able to do the best burn of the oak tree field—a prairie area with lots of invasive honeysuckle—that I have ever seen. And with rain just a couple hours after the burn finished, we didn’t have to worry about any embers lighting the unburned area.

I’ve been watching the spots that usually have the first wildflowers for several weeks, looking for the first signs of spring. On Wednesday, the first harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa) showed up at the usual first bloom spot. By Thursday, many more harbinger of spring were blooming:

The skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) was also blooming:

I expected to see the skunk cabbage up much earlier, but Wednesday was the first time I found open blooms at Fox Island this year. I was told they have been blooming for three weeks at Metea.

In addition to the wildflowers, I saw a large leopard frog and heard a number of spring peepers on Thursday. It’s definitely spring.

My hill-climbing technique on classic skis is much faster than it was at the start of the season. I now have much more glide for less effort. Since I had never skate-skied before this winter, my skating technique has improved even more than my classic technique. Over my first two days of skating, I became much more efficient. My style still needed a lot of work. A week ago I made a major improvement to my skating. I was doing a loop that was taking me twenty minutes at 90% effort. I tried some changes to my style and my time dropped to fifteen minutes and my effort dropped to 85%. I then spent a few hours waxing my skis, and my time and effort dropped even more. I think that I switched from a V1/V2A hybrid to a better almost-V2A technique. My V2 and V2A style really needs work, but I’m a lot closer now.

Last week was spring break, so I had time to iron many coats of wax into my skis. They should be much faster next winter. I finished with a thick storage coat of wax and put my skis away for the winter.

On Thursday, I spent some time on the Country Crown skis at Foster Park. There wasn’t enough snow to go over my tracks more than once. I ended up skiing in a spiral around the golf course. I missed the extra glide of the waxable skis. Foster Park used to be my standard skiing spot. The past couple years I spent most of my skiing time at Fox Island.

Friday, a few guys from the Fort Wayne Kayak (and canoe) Club went skiing at Chain o’ Lakes SP. I have spent lots of time canoeing at Chain o’ Lakes, but had never been there in the winter. The snow map showed twice as much snow there, so I decided to join them. I arrived late, but caught up quickly. The conditions were better than predicted. There were enough sticks poking through the snow that I decided to use my old skis. I skied with the group for a couple hours, then by myself for a couple more hours. It was a great day. The snow was (mostly) good, there were snow covered trees, cirrostratus clouds, and fresh trails to break. Chain o’ Lakes is a great place to ski. There are easy flat trails and some good hills. The winter traffic is much lower than I expected, so the snow was still in great shape. I skied an easy 25 km.

I was going to try the trails at Pokagon SP this morning, but the warm weather and rain started early.