Easter Weekend

Poppy learning about wildlife but worn out from the board meeting earlier in the day.

West Virginia Orca aka Black-Capped Chickadee

Nuthatcher-females have grey head and neck stripe and males have black.


Moth landing on my lens to help bring wildlife directly to the camera.


Eastern Phoebe. A new visitor that prefers these logs and tree branches to any feeders.


Saturday meeting in the park was mostly business but if you were able to take your mind off the budget a minute you noticed common mergansers, canadian geese, calls of the pileated woodpecker and a red-tailed hawk soaring in the distance.
All in all it felt more like a weekend in summer than the first weekend of April. We were lucky to be able to spend it in a place we love.
I borrowed someone's camera lens and picked the worst possible weekend to forget a tripod since it is a monster. Lots of pictures taken...

Nightfall-First day of Spring

Finally, the first day of Spring!!

Female Robin

Nuthatcher

Tufted Titmouse

Wife and child!

Baby!

What a beautiful weekend. My photos aren't quite as nice as the weather was but we were just happy to be there the first day of Spring. Being able to reach the house without snowshoes was also appreciated. Oh yeah, introducing the new baby to the place was great too.

This afternoon there was a large ice dam at the bend just downstream from the boat ramp. After four weeks of mostly sub-freezing temperatures the ice was about 6 inches thick. Pieces floating downstream would just keep adding to the pile. The water flowed underneath.

There was another ice dam along Constant Run Rd. Loose pieces of ice floated downstream also adding to this dam. Notice the large ice mass on the left at the rear of the picture - it began to move as I took these pictures.

As it crashed into the Constant Run Rd ice dam, the whole mass broke loose and started to move. The powerful combination of water and ice was awe-inspiring.

This little guy may have "misplaced" his doorway. He later dove into the river and hopefully found his way home.

The ice is thick and the river fast. The force and the noise were impressive (please see the video below).

It's only funny until...

...someone loses an eye.

I know. I said I hated the squirrels who kept eating all our birdseed but I'm giving this poor guy a break. He already paid his dues in life.

Labradeer

This guy who resembled Rudy was spotted around Christmas Eve in Baltimore.

Just a month ago...black-capped chickadees

These are from Thanksgiving when life was a little warmer.