Welcome Spring!!!!!

To me a way to spell spring is 'd u c k'. I look for them with eagerness each March. This year my first sighting of returning ducks were Common Goldeneye ) above) last week on March 13th. Seen at their usual expected place this was an exciting spring discovery!
Yesterday, more ducks!Spring! How sweet it is, and what beautiful creatures await your eyes and your camera! Yesterday afternoon I found a small group of Hooded Mergansers. Last year I had found this species on March 17th, and so yesterday on March 19th;they were two days later than last year. And yes, I do find them in the same location each year. ( knowledge is power! Will I go back there today? You bet!
above : a handsome male Hooded Merganser!

first day of spring update! I went out this morning and found two more duck species out there. The first handsome one I found was a male Common Merganser, the guy duck with the red bill.
The next duck I think is a hybrid Black duck of some kind. Just look at the colour of its bill!

Welcome Spring
Oh Happy Day! The first day of spring! Good bye winter, I am not sorry to see you go although your presence the last few days has been gentle. My apologies to those who have read this before. I wrote this several springs ago but it has become my welcome acknowledgement to this delightful season every since.


Personifications of Spring
spring whispered and I listened

as trees swung their bare branches in welcome

pussy willows basked in warm sunlight

lulled by blended sounds of mating melodies

singing ageless songs of hopeful renewal

spring sighed and I watched

as melting snow created lawn ponds

awakened roots in the moist earth

quenched their frozen winter thirst

and yearned to stretch their green shoots upward

spring shouted and I felt its power

as disintegrating river ice abandoned its frozen grasp

pelting rains and furious winds spurned slothful winter

and rivers swelled their banks with prideful freedom

while egg laden fish dreamed of journeying home

spring returned today and I smiled

and was content,

secure in my knowledge of its enduring loyalty