Over in the Baraga area, Donna MacIntosh reports with her series of photos, that the trees are budding nicely already. Here in Lake Linden, they're not quite as advanced as these that Donna captured. I'm going to take a wild guess and say these are buds on a Red Maple tree. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, since I don't profess to be an arborist and can only identify a handful of trees with confidence.

Those buds sure are a beautiful red and the color really stands out against the drab gray of the leafless trees. What a beautiful season Spring is, with everything coming back to life, budding, growing and coloring our world with pretty hues once again. The only downside, as Donna pointed out, is that once the leaves pop out, the bugs aren't far behind. I guess we have to take the good with the bad. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will be a down year for the pesky, biting bug population. We can only hope…

But what is that curly-cue thing at the end of the branch in Donna's last photo? Whatever it is, it is quite unique! It looks like Mother Nature is adding a decorative flair for our enjoyment.

I believe those are actually flowers and not buds.

Gary - yes, those are the flowers of red maple - very distinctive in the spring. In Mary's defense, they're also buds - just flower buds rather than leaf buds.

I think the curly-cue is likely the result of a broken branch that the bark peeled from as it fell out of the tree.

Nice pix...the Buds around my house so far, have been a little light.

Trees, Alex!!! We're talking about trees here!!!

LOL!!

LOL

HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!! Love it!

Another beautiful sign of Spring.

You guys!

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