Thursday, March 20, 2014

A Walk on the Vernal Equinox

I went looking for signs of Spring today on the Vernal Equinox; naturally I went to look in the obvious place, the Dykeman Spring Nature Park. The day certainly hasn't proved all that Spring-like – temperatures in the mid 40s F (around 7ยบ C), windy, and mostly cloudy with sun only from time to time. So I didn't hold out much hope. 

But there are signs, if you care to look closely. And the birds are out in full force; you can hear them singing their Spring songs – Cardinals, Redwing Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Goldfinches, House Finches, etc. –  but they were successfully staying hidden in the brush or out of camera range. I managed to get a decent shot of a Redwing Blackbird, and that took some time and patience. Here are the results of my search for Spring.

A Redwing Blackbird in the Dykeman Spring wetlands
Skunk Cabbage poking up in the Dykeman Spring wetland, a sure sign of Spring
Daffodils poking up along the Dykeman Walking Trail
New greenery on the forest floor along the Upland Trail
New greenery on the forest floor along the Upland Trail
Despite the close-up look, the wide view still looks pretty bleak, as seen in this shot of the upland meadow
© 2014 by A. Roy Hilbinger

4 comments:

  1. If anyone's capable of finding Spring color, it's you! :)

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  2. Love the picture of the Skunk Cabbage never see or heard of it before,
    it started the imagination off, looking like beaks coming up out of the water,
    No I'm not drinking, thanks for the post its good to see spring on the way.

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  3. ...thank goodness signs of spring are starting to pop! (Love the red-winged blackbird...and skunk cabbage!)

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  4. The emerging Skunk Cabbages remind me of crab claws. Beautiful color. Love the color in that "bleak" shot as well.

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