Springtails anyone?

The snow is starting to melt, the days are getting warmer and with that comes our new found friends, the Springtails, or snow fleas.  I bet you never heard of those before....neither had we until yesterday.  You see, we have noticed a pattern in the past few weeks:  on cold days, the snow is pure white and all is good.  On warm days, the snow gets speckled with tiny little black things, and if we move the snow around, I start having a real bad case of allergies.  This has happened a few times in the past few weeks and we thought nothing of it until yesterday:  Russell was out and took a close look at those little black things and he saw them hop.  That's when we knew we were dealing with something more than dust, soot or debris from the trees.  After a lot of Googling, we found out that those are called Springtails, or snow fleas.

Snow fleas are not fleas as we know them, they don't bite and don't harm humans and pets. They are so tiny as you can see from the picture.  You have to really look closely to see them move.They hop around the surface of the snow which is why they are called snow fleas.  They are decomposers, feeding primarily on decaying leaves and, although they are apparently active in the Winter, they become more active on warm days and that is when they move to the top of the snow's crust. This explains why we have started seeing them as the days are getting warmer.  How is this related to allergies?  Well, snow fleas mixed with snow mould, which can happen at this time of year, is the perfect recipe for allergies, or so it seems.  So, here I am suffering from really bad allergies, first time in a long time. I started taking an antihistamine today which should make me feel better in a day or two.  

Having said all this about our little critters, Spring seems to be here, finally.  Today is a beautiful, sunny and balmy day....+8 celsius.  Despite not feeling too good, we went for a nice, leisurely walk at Arrowhead Park.  When we got home, I wanted to sit on the deck but thought I would wait for my allergy pills to kick in.  The last thing I want is for the Springtails to get the better of me!

Not much else is going on.  We are going to Montreal at the end of this week to visit my parents.  We look forward to seeing them and to hearing more about their preparations for their big move.  

I wish you all a great week.  April will make its entrance on Tuesday and let's hope that it brings consistent warm weather.  Hope you enjoy this picture that we took of the snow fleas.....as well as a picture that Russell took of the Stubbs Falls today, original picture and the same picture "painted".  Russell is getting very creative and is having fun with his new software.

Springtails.....looks like pepper on the snow.

Stubb's Falls original photo.

Stubb's Falls photo-painted.