I love this time of year. One day there are little buds on the trees and the next - literally overnight - the leaves are open and the hills lose the dull gray-brown barren look. They are all green. It's a confirmation of renewal and life.
To celebrate green-up and enjoy the green I've been driving a little longer route to work, along the river and through the trees. This past week has been great, as I've sat in the car and watched a moose browse for breakfast and an osprey guarding the nest.
The moose is not a large one (relatively speaking), and I watched her munch on some of the young birch trees and on the brush growing low to the ground. I saw her three of the four days I drove that route last week.
The osprey have been around for several summers, and last year built their nest on a power pole. In order to prevent possible disaster to them, our utility folks constructed a special pole for them and placed some sticks on top to lure them. It seems to have worked. You can see the nest they're building.
Friday I watched a snowshoe hare running along the side of the road. I know there is at least one fox family living there too, and hope to see some of them as I enjoy an early morning spring drive to work. Happy spring everyone. I'm so glad it's finally here.
5 comments:
Nice photos, especially the osprey! I was disappointed to see that their nest wasn't where it used to be. I'm glad they came to the new nest. Where is the new nest? Is it in the same area on post? (I'm assuming we're both referring to the same nest that used to be in the approach strip on post?)
I love this time of year too!
Susan
Hi Susan. I love watching the wildlife early in the morning when there's no other traffic. It's times like this I think maybe I should buy an SLR and some heavy duty zooms. But then I think of those days when I carried two camera bodies, both with auto-advance motors; a 300mm lens; a 28mm lens; a 50mm lens; a flash; and remember the extra 40 pounds, and I am grateful that digitals now come out with 20x optical zooms. I think I'll stick with that for now.
The osprey nest is just a little west of the approach area, on the riverbank, right off River Road. If I hadn't been told it was there, I would have missed it. I usually come in from the Gaffney Road side, and can see the end of the runway when I park just on the west side of the pole.
One of the guys from the office said he was on his way back to work today and saw the male osprey doing some air dancing with a raven. When he got out of his car, he could hear the female making a lot of noise from the nest. The biologist told him the ravens like to harass the osprey, and we figure he was protecting the nest.
Thank you for that info! It is the nest I was thinking of then. I thought the nest was taken down. I'll have to keep my eye open for it.
Have a great weekend.
I'd say my sense of direction has come through once again :O - it's pretty much nonexistent. I'm guessing that next is NORTH of the approach, not west.
Make that "nest." I should probably stop leaving comments :)
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