Firsts

Well, a day of firsts...first daffodil to open in the garden and first garden spider!  I will freely confess that I did a bit of staging with this - I found the spider dangling by it's thread from the side of the house this morning.  As any good blipper would do, I got a small twig and gently removed him, placing him about a foot away on this daffodil.  It was cold enough this morning that the little leggy guy wasn't moving much so I was free to snap a bunch of shots.  Then, as the sun continued to beat down on the garden, the spider apparently warmed up, immediatelywaved a couple of legs around,  struck a yoga pose and then jumped off the flower back into the mulch.  Our work here is done.  

Every spring when the ground warms and we get a rainy day, the worms make a mass exodus onto our driveway where they ultimately die.  Weird, but totally predictable.  So, when I went out this morning to get the paper, I had to dodge worm corpses all over the driveway - yuck.  However, several hours later, I noticed a flock of robins scouring the driveway and scarfing up the worms - nature's own janitorial staff.

All of the usual backyard birds were around this morning, providing me with plenty to aim my camera at.  My other favorite shot today was this junco, shaking off the morning chill and this very accommodating white-breasted nuthatch, striking a pose  

If the weather holds, I'll meet up with a friend tomorrow and try to find an owl nest that she's seen.  We'll have to stay a fair distance from it since the owls have several owlets they are tending, but maybe I can manage a heavily cropped shot - we'll see.

Cherry trees are budding up and the undergrowth in our woods is all starting to turn green - spring is definitely very early this year, not that I am complaining!

And I almost forgot - HAPPY St. PATRICK'S DAY

TTFN