The ice on local beaver ponds is giving way before a sultry March sun, and all of nature seems to be rejoicing. Even as I framed this shot, male red-winged blackbirds KER-CHEEEEEed enthusiastically from the branches of drowned trees, while skeins of Canada geese crisscrossed the blue sky, trumpeting the good news from on high. Winter’s days are numbered. Spring can’t be long in coming!

Questions? Comments? Just click here!

L’heure bleue, that magical, tranquil interval of half-light between dark of night and full day, took on a very different meaning for me earlier this week, when a greedy jay competed with an azure sky for my attention. Guess which one won?

Questions? Comments? Just click here!

Snow had fallen during the night, and the thick overcast hinted there was more to come. The little maple outside my office window shed the last of its leaves months ago, and the winds had long since scattered whatever the snow hadn’t buried. Yet when I looked out I thought I saw a newly fallen leaf. I was wrong. The “leaf” was the head of a chipmunk. He’d left his snug underground apartment to see what he could see, no doubt hoping to put an end to his enforced confinement. As I watched, he swiftly boxed the compass, taking in all of the unbroken white expanse around his home. Then, with what I can only imagine was a sigh of resignation, he headed back down to his burrow to wait impatiently for spring.

Questions? Comments? Just click here!