signs of spring

since we don't really have any flowers yet here, i thought i'd start this thread with some other sure signs of spring
1. pepper, our 32 year old mare,the girl still has it, here she is in the sweet afternoon light, looking towards the boys, too bad they are all gelded
2. another sure sign of spring, karen grading the farm road, john deere green, velvia action in a spray can
3. barn cats catching some rays, the one on the right is the momma, named scary, the one on the left a daughter, named peanut, the other daughter is an all black lng hair named strawberry, not visible as she is inside the barn door, just out of sight

let's see some other sure signs of spring, does not have to be flowers or birds, ie. my spouse on the tractor, a sure spring sighting if there ever was

gary

 

nice looking horse. Yea finally some nice weather. I got cabin fever after a week of rain. Hopefully will have a few to post after Tim and I and of course Billy do our thing at Smithville and I get to try out the 50mm 1.8 finally

 

finally some sunshine

 

1 more

 

thanx Tim where did I get what ?

 

Here's a fairly classic sign of spring. A duck chose the mulch beside my garage as her nesting site. You should understand I am not water adjacent, I live in a fairly typical suburban neighborhood. There are some small ponds in the area, of course, but it's not like I live on the edge of one.
I had gotten all excited about this.. I had plans to follow the baby ducks after they hatched, to photograph them incessantly (what more photogenic subject can there be than cute, fluffy, downy duck chicks?). I was also intensely interested in following them when the mother takes them to water, I wanted to see the march of the ducks through my neighborhood.
If you've paid close attention to my word choices here you might have gotten a sense of ominous foreshadowing.. and you'd be right.
As of yesterday it appears that a scavenger found the nest. The mother was gone and two empty egg shells had been discarded beside the dug open nest (with at least three intact eggs remaining, which I never understood).
Today the scavenger appears to have returned to mostly finish the job. There may be one intact egg remaining, but.. I don't think the mother is coming back, while I'm sure that the scavenger (I'm going to guess raccoon) will be.
You know what? So be it. I won't be upset about this. That's what scavengers do. Our house was probably not the safest place for a nest. I had the chance to consider trying to save the remaining eggs and incubate them.. but then I'd have had to raise the remaining chicks, which would have been humanized and dependent for the rest of their lives. I'm in no position to raise and care for a bunch of baby ducks. And they're probably too common for any area animal conservation groups to be able to worry about them.
So a local raccoon got an extra treat, and hopefully this mother duck will pick a better location for her nest next year. I am sorry I couldn't protect it.. but what could I have done? Any thing I can think of would have been likely to stress the mother and possibly cause her to abandon the nest anyway.

I will say that the mulch was a perfect location considering the female Mallard's camouflage.

I hope I didn't bring the mood down any. But, well.. it was The Lion King that made such a big deal out of the circle of life. The area is still probably loaded with eggs of all kinds, I should start watching the parks and such for an outpouring of adorable chicks.

 

nature can be what we perceive as cruel sometimes that's for sure.
There is a Wildlife Sanctuary close to both Tim and I and now that the weather is finally getting nice I will be looking for the baby ducks and geese.
oh and nice clear pic

 

Thanx Craig

 

gull

 

Here's a few recent "spring" pics from me:


Just some butterfly hanging around ...


My youngest happy to finally having a chance to ride in his "car" outside ...

 

Ahh springtime, when all the baby polar bears are emerging from their dens to greet the bright new world.. Yes, I just drove out to my friendly neighborhood polar bear colony.. er.. zoo that has been a leader in breeding polar bears in captivity and has been heavily hyping their newest polar bear cub. The crowds were HUGE, I had to crop out the blurred outlines of people's heads in both of these shots. I've sworn that I will return soon, perhaps this week, in an attempt to get more time shooting the cub without having to worry about the teaming masses.
Still images do not explain the unleashed adorableness that resides within that furry little package. As a general fan of all things furry and as a particular feline enthusiast I must admit that I was shocked at how charismatic that little bear was.
Since still images are lacking I'm including a link to the zoo's web site, where they host some video of the cub.
http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/pgpages/pagegen.346.aspx
The videos are at the bottom of the page.

The word from the keepers is that they're very surprised at how fearless the cub is acting, traditionally they tend to be more shy. Which just adds to the bonanza for me, amateur photographer and videographer that I am. I just need to figure out a way to mount my camcorder to the side of my camera so I can use them both simultaneously.

 

After a long winter in upstate NY, the locals get out and burn some rubber!



The ESTA Dragstrip is about 25 miles northeast of Syracuse and gives a safe and fun place for all ages to see how fast they can get their vehicles down a 1/4 mile. What I love about local sporting events is how close you can get. All pictures taken with my D70 and 18-200 VR zoom.



A "vintage" 1970s Ford Maverick. ;D

 

my oldest son and his family live in Clinton NY. I been up there 4 times and I never knew spring even existed there