Home to the Pasque flowers!

For me, the first sure sign of spring is the appearance of the Pasque flowers. They come sometime between the big melt and tax day every year - seemingly out of nowhere. One day the blooms just cover the hillside near our house, and are followed later by the leaves. I was sure that I would miss them this year because of my two weeks out east, but here they are waiting for me to get home!

After almost two weeks of city and highway life, it was glorious to be back in our rural home. While I really love visiting urban life, I did miss my birds and earth!

Once a year Mother nature allows us into the woods behind our house. The rest of the year it is too full of brambles and other ankle eaters and pant rippers, that we let her have her privacy. So today I went to check out this year's changes and occupants.

We see many birds at our feeders, but it is also fun to see where they spend the rest of their time. The woods and surrounding territory is governed by our resident red tail hawk. This is the only time of year the nest is visible in the tops of the trees. The feather in the second picture is probably a leftover from a recent dinner at the hawk home. The right photo is the condominium project in the woods. I can't even imagine how many woodpeckers are living in this one tree!

Along with the Pasque flowers, I found these little blue beauties (sorry I have no idea the real name of them) They are so tiny that from a distance they are just a blue blur amongst the neutral dry leaves and underbrush. They are beautiful, and I don't remember them here last year.

Then there is the evidence of those who didn't make it through the winter. We have many deer around us here, but it looks like one of last year's fawns didn't make it, and some little bunny lost some fur, if not his life, recently.