Spring is my favourite time of year!  Every day, it seems, there are little sensual treats to enjoy.  Today, we spotted a beautiful pair of Wood Ducks at the back of the marsh.  They are beautiful birds with sculpted lines and patches in contrasting colours.  They are skulkers so we don’t get to see them very often.  But with the trees and buses still bare, we were able to see them moving above in the water behind a tangle of bushes.

Yesterday, it was a pair of Goldfinches feeding at our bird feeder.  While they will be common place in the coming months, yesterday’s siting was the first of the season.  It was a thrill to see them standing on the feeder perches just a few feet from our window with their yellow heads glowing in the sun.

On Saturday, we caught the Rabbit in our back yard feeding her young in our garden.  Her young, it turns out, are tucked away in a burrow right outside our living room window.  Through our window, we caught her standing over the burrow feeding her young.  When she was done, she stood on her hind legs and cleaned herself.  This is when we got a really good look at the four little bunnies in the nest.  While she cleaned herself, they burrowed back down into the hole.  She covered the hole with leaves and needles until it disappeared from view once more, before hopping away to the back of the year.

On Friday, it was a Carolina Wren on our backyard fence.  Carolina Wrens are large, loud, rusty brown wrens that used to be extremely rare in Ontario.  But with the climate changing in North America, these birds are pushing their boundaries north into southern Ontario.  I heard a Caroline Wren calling from the field behind our house all last summer, and then I heard one again this week for the first time in several months.

Each time, I come down to the main floor of our house, I peer into the backyard with my camera ready, waiting for the next spring-time first.