A Walk on the Wild Side

It's March, can you believe it? 

I'm not happy that the year is flying by,

but the signs of spring I find around me make me want to dance.

The Hollow is coming back to life.

Most branches are still bare, but the redbuds are getting the party started.

Mourning doves are back, greeting me on my morning walk... 

...and cooing their mournful song from the trees.

There's been enough rain to keep Max's favorite pool open.

And he's not the only one enjoying it.

Adventurous and hardy Prairie Verbena is always one of the first to emerge and last to disappear.

American Robins have decided they like the Hollow and are lingering a bit.

Our little front yard (home of the bird feeder) is becoming a popular hang-out for the neighborhood critters like this squirrel.

I don't know why this Mexican Jay is giving me the Evil Eye.

A small party of fluffy American Sparrows arrived and posed for me. 

I'll share more of them tomorrow. 

What signs of spring are you finding?

Linking up with

and

Mexican Jay

Gonna find me a bluebird, let him sing me a song

Cause my heart's been broken much too long.

~Marvin Rainwater, Gonna Find Me a Bluebird Lyrics, 1955

Love those Baby Blues

"When nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast."  

~John Burroughs

Mexican Jays love the oaks and junipers here in Long Hollow. 

Flashes of their beautiful blue feathers are truly a gift during this oven of a summer that continues to bake the color from the landscape around us.

The grownups are camera shy, 

but this little baby blue was just as curious about me as I was enamored of him.

He let me snap away. 

Photos are cropped but otherwise, straight out of the camera. 

They really are this beautiful shade of blue!

 I'm grateful for my zoom! He wouldn't let me get this close!

Birds have a way of putting things in perspective. They forge ahead and carry on no matter what happens.  No dwelling on the past, no regrets, sheer 100% survival... and beauty. ~ Susan Halpin

And when he sings to you,

Though you're deep in blue,

You will see a ray of light creep through,

And so remember this,

life is no abyss,

Somewhere there's a bluebird of happiness.

Life is sweet, tender and complete,

when you find the blue bird of happiness.

~Blue Bird of Happiness, lyrics by Edward Heyman and Harry Parr Davies, 1934