Meanwhile in the Nuthouse...Spring signs?

Just some random stuff from this week.

Canada Geese 
protecting the nest

Wood ducks!

Fresh fern
Young fresh Sporophytes

Last year's leaves
Maidenhair Fern

A symbol of Purity
and
Innocence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been waiting to use this Minifigure for a while. I wanted to go out and look for 'Spring'. It hasn't really arrived in our forest yet, but I keep hoping to find a sign somewhere. The Virginia Pinks usually arrive by April 20th and carpet the forest floor for about 10 days.

So I took this Mushroom Sprite [I call her Flora] and Hammie out for a walk with me when I went to check on the forest fencing yesterday afternoon. Once more I decided to experiment with the Lensbaby lens. I'm finally getting the hang of it...I think.

Since there are no spring flowers blossoming yet, I thought I'd try something different.

I wanted to create some flying Lego folks so I used wire to put these two in the air. I love the smile on the green guy's face.

Sunday came and with storms predicted, Jason and I decided it wouldn't be fun for me to go hiking in thunderstorms. He stayed home and after getting inside stuff done, I turned to some creative things.

It is amazing what a little light and cardboard can do! Of course Dr. Cob and his dog, Gear are collecting gears!

The shot and the result.

Later ~~ they are working in his secret lab???

And since I was doing spooky settings... I thought this was funny...

"Dude, I think you are in
the wrong movie set!"

Lucky for us! The day ended with a rainbow in the East!

 

Wild things

 My pal couldn't make it on Sunday morning, so I packed up my long lens and headed out to the ponds at the Reserve.

I know. I go there a LOT. It is 20 minutes or so by car and has nice trails along with nice access to a river.

The serious bird photographers this time of year are wandering up and down Highway 35 along the Mississippi or taking trips along the Wisconsin River where the wildlife is truly amazing and abundant.

I have to stay closer to home on my excursions. Hubby gets uncomfortable if I head out too.

When I got to the Reserve there was one vehicle parked in the Visitor's Center Parking lot. Usually people don't show up early to explore the Reserve. I could hear Sandhill Cranes, Redwing Blackbirds, and Canada Geese from the lot.

But motion in the tree ahead of me captured my attention.

Hubby says it was a pine squirrel. Around our home and in the forest we have quite a few grey squirrels but I rarely see the ones colored like this.

I stood for a long time and watched him/her, then moved on quietly. It was such a pretty and cute squirrel.

I went down the railroad tie stairs and along the Visitor Trail to another muddy trail that went between the two ponds. 

March 17th last year I spotted a pair of Trumpeter swans in the western pond. To my great surprise and delight, I found Swans again.

March 26th and I found the swans again!

I sat still and watched them for a while. I was able to observe a bunch of ducks too. I could see a wood duck paddling around the swans and I didn't want to spook any of them.

A gent with a dog came up the trail and he was trying to be quiet, but the movement of them set the whole pond off and birds started to take off.

Of course the Sandhill Cranes couldn't let just the geese make all the noise so they joined in too. But they didn't leave. They were on the far side of the ponds.

I decided to walk down another muddy trail on my way back to the parking lot when I heard a bird and saw a flash of blue across another pond.

It was far away, but I tried to catch a shot or two anyway.

A Belted Kingfisher.

I sure was pleased.

On the way back to the car I thought how nice it would be to arrive predawn and sit quietly by the ponds in a more remote spot and just watch all of the water fowl. 

It doesn't look like the weather will be good enough during this week though. Another Thursday sleet and snowish event. Yuck.

However a beautiful Bluebird stopped by as we were eating supper. So Spring is coming, right?