Early Spring Walk

Mass Audubon Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts

Feel the spring?... not exactly,
   except for burbles of vivifying streams
    and the teeny, almost invisible leaves being born in the brushing distance... 

... and the Reds...

Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Northern Flicker in the earthly balance with the sleepy meadow...
   steps left, steps right, turns back and at once the reds jump out, calling for spring...

His Latin name has this word Auratus which means golden...
   Looking closely at his plumage, I sense the meaning...
    the patterns where each plume has a golden place and innate beauty of nature comes to light...

        ... for whose eyes?...

Last Call

Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Frozen tip-tops of hanging branches sculpted along shadowy edges of the pond,
     in splendor with light and water... just for today... 

In Full Voice

Hale Reservation, Westwood, Massachusetts

Not much is going on in the woods, seems sleepy...
   and then we stumble upon this choir, in full voice...
   the whole place is singing,
     even those still asleep can hear her songs, for the spring has arrived... 

Melting Beauty

Mass Audubon Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, Massachusetts

The temps have risen slightly, to a point when snow starts to depart in her own crystal ways,
   with millions of diamonds and sculpted characters,
     dissolving in reflections of the world she leaves behind...

  And then, there is this charming shaggy fellow munching on the meadow,
     completely ignorant of our presence... the first sign of spring...

 

Bald Eagle

Deer Island, Merrimack River, Massachusetts

Bald Eagles had tough time for most of the 20th century, and then being pushed to the brink of survival by the toxic effects of DDT on their eggs. After the chemical had been banned, there was a major effort, with many people involved, to bring these birds back. And it happened...
   ... the remote peninsula in Quabbin Reservoir became their first home. They move closer to the Ocean in winter, to the area of lower Merrimack which does not freeze. Deer Island is the island on the river where people come to watch and enjoy their flyovers...
     ... on cold, winter days...
        ... and they are not bald, they have lovely white plume coating their heads...

Brushing Over the Sand

Crane Beach, Massachusetts

Snowflakes are dusting over surfaces,
  fusing with this sandy world into the glorious amalgam of forms and colors...
  
  What a princely feeling !!!