And She Is Up and Running

I told you to pay attention or this sweet young thing (Spring) would have grown up and matured before you even made it around the side of your house. She is very promiscuous and does not think about those humans who are enthralled and behave as paparazzi. I visited the nearby County Park which has a wonderful marsh created by those industrious beavers who think spring is a short marathon.

Just a Breath

Spring, although filled with tasks and events, does creep in so slowly and yet so determinedly.  Each day some minuscule change happens and unless you are measuring, you do not notice.  Soon the season will be mature.

While I have several native dogwoods that bloom white in the understory of the woods, I have a cultivar of a dogwood in the front yard that seems as beautiful to me in the small first bud of early spring as it does when mature.   Its "blossoms" are symbols of love, luck, and rebirth throughout the world.  It also has religious meaning for many.  The beautiful part of the bloom is the bracts or leaves outside the blossoms.  We think they are the petals of the flower because they are colored and not green, but they are not.  Inside are 20 tiny blossoms...the actual flowers.

Below is what my tree looks like this week...such a tease.

A Famous and Popular Event with Nature

I visited Washington, DC last week to enjoy the cherry blossoms. We picked a Thursday hoping that crowds would be smaller with people at work. It was also a day after heavy rain and the areas where people walked were muddy. Alas, the crowds were there in full force and the rains had knocked only a very few blossoms to the ground. Some of these are digitally painted and others are right out of the camera. I hope you enjoy the visit virtually.  The last photo has a quote from FDR (Franklin Delanor Roosevelt) taken at the FDR memorial.  

"Men and nature must work hand in hand.  The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men."

Even Birds Get Nasty Habits

The birds have been intriguing all winter, but now that the weather is warmer I can stay outside longer to catch them when they drop their fear and shyness.

The White-throated Sparrows are very common and feed on the ground. They turn leaves throughout the woods, but also collect in a group of a dozen or so under my birdfeeders. According to Cornell their sound is "Oh-sweet-canada-canada" or "Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody". This prior text was a direct cut and paste, so not sure why the capitalization is off. The words are not something I can hear out when I listen. This is primarily their mating call in the spring. They are full opportunity feeders eating seeds, insects and even buds of certain trees in the spring. Like the majority of birds, they feed their young insects. I guess that is why they are so abundant.

  

This Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) above is storing her cache of seeds from my feeder. I do not think this is a nest since I see no entering and exiting. Below is our common Northern Cardinal. They have ganged up on me and gone from one bird who pecks at a window to three or four that peck at ALL the windows around my house! I can no longer take an afternoon nap! I fear it is a genetic anomoly and they will reproduce even more of these birds with a nasty habit.

Aha!

Spring is here. Oh, there could be the errant snow that only falls by the window and never covers the lawn for more than a second or two. The weather here is sometimes sporadic. But I took a walk around the yard with my camera and this is definitely evidence that spring is here.  Yesterday was in the 70sF!

Male House Finch in mating colors.

Bumble bee checking out the dead nettle flowers.  Notice his orange pollen?

You can wipe that  pollen off your nose and go back to drinking your nice warm beverage now.

Taking Liberty with Botanicals

I had fun "painting" the California outdoor botanicals. Spring is in full swing there now.  Below a cherry tree in the Japanese Friendship Garden. Some textured bark, cactus in bloom, and a Southern California coral tree.

Then there was this little forest that took me by surprise. Needed no changes/painting to enjoy the abstraction! Even the crow was fooled!

Rush Hour

It is just past 7:00 in the morning and the sun is starting to peek over the horizon through the woods in the East.  Temperature is a challenging 39F and will hit 40F by this afternoon. It was almost 70F yesterday and that has been the state of things. Winter followed by summer followed by fall all in one week! 

I saw a flock of robins flying in and turning the leaves in my backyard as I sipped my morning coffee.  This means to me there may be the rarer flock of Cedar Waxwings nearby.  They tend to move together. It is that time of year.

I go to the front window, near the holly, and as expected, I see the silhouettes of Cedar Waxwings against the bright morning sky in the tall tulip tree. I go outside very quietly and stop just at the second porch step. I sit slowly on the cold flagstone in my flannel pajamas and lean against my cold stone wall and slowly lift my camera to the tops of the nearby tulip tree. There are dozens and dozens of the Waxwings!  My photo is backlit, and therefore, a harder challenge for this amateur photographer.

There are 40 or 50 silhouettes of Cedar Waxwings surveying the front yard!  I sit for several minutes taking photos.

The Waxwings remain quiet.

Because my angle is so low, the close-ups do not show the beauty of these bandits.