Weasel and Male Hooded Merganser

On March 19th, 2013 I found my first duck of the season, a handsome male Hooded Merganser, and that is not all I found.  While taking pictures of the merganser in an open area of water 

 I spied a small brown animal running  in my direction on top of the thin ice edging the water area.  It was too big to be a groundhog, but it was brown with a bullet shaped head  when headed in my direction from my perspective of sitting in the car.  I was disappointed at first that I didn't get many  pictures  when I first saw it,but I was focusing on capturing  my first duck sighting.  I stayed parked in my car beside the pond for a while and it was then that I noticed the little brown animal again running over the ice alongside the shore.

                                        
There is a big drainage pipe in this area leading from the pond under the railroad embankment there.  The little creature was very frisky in its movements., Almost as if it were running and jumping for joy!  Sometimes it would slip into the water and swim into the drainage pipe as the Hooded Merganser did

 I finally was able to take many pictures.
 One overexposed picture gave me a clue as to what this little animal might be.  In the overexposed picture I was able to see that it had a black-tipped tail , like an ermine has in the winter when the rest of its fur is white.  An ermine is a winter version of a weasel and so I have identified this little animal as a weasel. I love these pictures.  I have seen ermine twice but never had been so lucky as to photograph a weasel.  Oh happy day it is that I am able to post weasel photos!

River breakup Time

    Its that time of year again: river breakup: these pictures were taken yesterday and as usual there has been a bit of flooding and water over the highways.  The personification and pictures following were created a few years ago.

Personifications of a River Break-Up

As a child, the time of the 'ice going out' was always an anticipated event.

I can remember my brothers and I lined up by the old fence on the top of the hill; watching and listening to the drama of the powerful ice floes floating by in the river below.

This time of year, when the end of a long, cold, snowy winter is in sight; the changes taking place in the river ice are always strong reminders that there is definitely a seasonal change in the air.
The River Break Up

Pelting rains and furious winds
spurned slothful winter

and woodland streams swelled their banks
with prideful freedom
while disintegrating river ice abandoned its frozen grasp
and stretched its icy fingers towards the shore


geometric ice shapes played
layering and shuffling games

while jockeying for positions
along the swollen river banks
as tranquil mainstream remained in its solidity
reflecting in the strengthening afternoon sun
hillside grasses and dry stalks overlooked the changing scene
while springtime memories stirred in their roots
and jubilant waves and rushing rapids
raced down the river and disappeared around the bend.

Some red in nature for Ruby Tuesday 2

     there was a bit of excitement on the weekend when my husband began declaring that he had just found a wonderful sign of spring and insisting that I see it by looking out my kitchen window!!!!  What it was , was a ladybug crawling up our windowpane.  and yes, to us it was a sort of spring event, a spring happening.
with a bit of research I discovered that ladybugs tend to crawl on windows with a soutwest exposure!
And this window does have a southwest exposure!  So Spring, are you nearby... coming soon, I hope!

    To make sure this ladybug didn't fall on the floor after we had scooped it off the window with an envelope, I corraled it with a ring.  Later, after its photoshoot we returned it to the window pane we had found it on

Getting the day off to a  good start with nature and a cup of coffee.