Now this is apropos of nothing, as I should be talking about Spring, which is finally starting to happen, but I've got these pictures, and once the leaves come out they'll look out of date, and they're the best bird shots I've got, so...





I don't pretend to be a serious wildlife photographer. You see people in the Park with the whole outfit; telephoto lens; tripod; plenty of patience. I've got to keep moving, and this camera isn't quite up to capturing songbirds, but in this case, one of those big, photogenic Red-tailed Hawks landed in a Willow, no more than twelve feet above me. Busy devouring a fresh rat, it took no notice of me clicking away. You can get an idea here of the way bird watching works. How in the top pictures you might not know what you're looking at, if you don't know you're looking at something. Sometimes you're not even sure why you're looking. Maybe it's a bit of movement, maybe you hear something, like the scolding Blue Jay to the right, but all you see it tree trunk, or branch stump maybe, or no...take a look through the binocular, and oh, now I see...





Just as the Hawk was coming into focus, the rat was losing its. A reminder that identifiability is fleeting, and identity is tough for any of us to maintain. We display changing faces, just as the Year does, though we say we are a World unto ourselves. Are we really any less predictable than the seasons?

For all its repetition, each Spring is different, and this one has been slow to develop. The weather patterns that brought us a protracted Winter remain in force, but some things will not wait. This past weekend wasn't warm, but it brought the first wave of migrant Warblers, and more will follow. The first leaves are appearing on Apple trees, and a promised warm front from the south is apt to unleash a burst of pent-up growth.



Soon the vacant spaces will warm with sun, and fill with foliage, making it harder to spot hawks, let alone the little songbirds, but I wouldn't have it any other way.