Winter's Cold Winds Call Me

It's been a long hot summer around here, and there seems to be no relief in sight. Since we have to endure this terrible heat outside, I'm going to give you a little bit of relief here on the internet. I'll take you on a little journey back in time to the last days of winter, when there was snow and blue skies, and just a hint of spring in the air. Here we go...

From The Everyday Adventurer

A little snow won't stop me any time soon! The day before my last post came out we had a huge snowstorm. I had been talking about spring coming ever closer, but then that happened. Was I wrong? No, I definitely was not wrong! These blue skies are my proof.

Yeah, yeah, I have to admit that I doctored the photos just a little bit. For shame! Really, all I did was enhance the color a tiny bit. I think they look a little more cheery this way. It was already a nice clear day with blue skies above, but snow can sometimes make things look more bleak than they actually are.

All of the snow you see in these pictures melted away to nothing in just a few days, only to be replaced a short time later with an equal amount. Winter still has a good grip on us, but it's beginning to loosen just a bit. Let's move on.

In the far background of the picture above are the trees I mentioned in my last post where birds like to hang around. Bill of Wildramblings asked a thought provoking question about my opinion of why the birds might like those trees so much. I explained in the comments section that I'm not very knowledgeable about trees yet, but I still have some thoughts on the subject.

The area there in the background is a small wetland. A vernal pond forms there in the spring which feeds a small creek that runs this way to the small footbridge that is almost concealed by the trees on the right. Many animals can be found from those far trees to the ones closer to the foreground. I think the far trees are attractive for being far away from human foot traffic.

Along with all of the water in the area are plenty of apple trees and some other trees and shrubs with berries that the birds like. I took this picture from the parking lot of the nature park. I was standing beside my truck at the time. You can see there are a lot of human tracks at this end of the park. Many birds that are near fly to the far trees when a human shows up.

This is another look at the robin from my last post. I think he was watching me as intensely as I was watching him. He seemed very uncomfortable when he noticed me, and kept leaping from tree to tree until he finally flew away.

The robins weren't nearly so shy last year. Back then I would routinely be surrounded by them as they gathered to eat berries from the trees that are closer to the nature trail. I don't think it was a lack of food last year that kept them close. There seemed to be more for them back then.

Here is another view of those same background trees from the other side of the footbridge. The parking lot is roughly off to the left. I keep taking pictures of all of these scenes, except the one with the bird of course. I just like the way these places look so much that I get a picture of  each of them every time I'm here.