Just a few photos from Saturday and a poem by Wendell Berry

Woods
by Wendell Berry
I part the out thrusting branches

and come in beneath

the blessed and the blessing trees.

Though I am silent

there is singing around me.

Though I am dark

there is vision around me.

Though I am heavy

there is flight around me.

Dawn at the lake

Yesterday I set out to watch the sun rise at a favorite place of mine. As I waited for the sun to climb over the trees the light and colors slowly began to switch places with the early shadows. A beaver silently swam at the far end of the lake.

Something else disturbed the surface of the water behind me. The chorus of spring birds began to rise with the colors.
Then all at once things seemed to move faster, the sun had climbed above the trees the fog began to dissapate and the colors took over for the day shift. Even though I had not really moved more than tweny feet during the last half hour, it seemed as if I had been taken to a new place, a new day. Maybe thats the reason we go watch the sun come up.

Skywatch Friday

Evening Clouds

Crawford County

To participate in Skywatch Friday visit Tom at Wiggers World for all of the details: http://womtig.blogspot.com/

Redbuds In April

Redbuds In April

Crawford County

Flooded Stream

Crawford County

Blue Phlox

Crawford County

Redbuds
Crawford County

Roundleaf Grounsel

Crawford County

Roundleaf Groundsel

Crawford County

Black Oak Trail in April

Crawford County

Yesterday I took a walk along Black Oak Trail near town. I wanted to see how much flooding we had on the west side of town from Cow Creek and also to look for the redbuds. Eastern Redbuds grow as a small understory tree in the woodlands here in SE Kansas. They put on a wonderful show with thousands of small dark pink flowers that sing together to light up the early spring.

I hiked slowly stopping several times to take a photo or listen. Birds that sang included an very determined robin, some warblers that I could just make out a yellow head through my binoculars, white throated sparrows, cardinals, and three crows that circled me twice calling to each other a low guttural caw. Silently a great blue heron flew overhead, a pair of blue wing teal glided to a landing in the flooded stream and a Carolina wren sat perched watching me over its shoulder suspiciously. I headed back to the truck thinking this three day weekend was off to a wonderful start.

Edge, Little Brown Birds and Crabapples

The last couple of nights Ive been spending evenings at the edge. That is the overgrown fence row that borders my pasture to the east. Ive walked and stood as the sun set behind me looking for little brown birds.
This small section was burned recently and has become a hot spot for these little brown birds, sparrows. Ive made it a goal this spring to get to know them better, to be able to identify them as something other than LBBs. So far in this little plot and the fence row Ive spotted White Crowned Sparrows, a Field Sparrow (cool pink bill and feet), Song Sparrows and last but not least Lark Sparrows. The Lark Sparrow was a new one for me, several sat in the burned pasture and ate while one sat in the fence row calling with an odd buzzing sound followed by some nicer notes. As a bonus Ive seen the first Scissor Tail Fly Catcher of the year, as well as red wing blackbirds, cardinals, mockingbird,and an osprey hunted the small lake to the east.
Crabapple tree in bloom

Crawford County Kansas

Crabapple tree in bloom

Crawford County Kansas

A Break in The Clouds

Cherokee County Kansas
Cherokee County Kansas

I took these pictures as I drove out south of town the other day looking for some places to fish when it warms up a bit. The sun came out Sunday afternoon. We have had cloudy cold weather here in SE Kansas this past four or five days. Lots of rain, snow out west, high winds and a hard frost this morning. We lived in Western Kansas for five years a while back, out along the Colorado border straddling two time zones, Mountain and Central Time. This weather reminds me of spring in Western Kansas quite a bit, maybe a few less hailstorms and tornadoes but just as cold.

I liked living there, the wife didn't, it was beautiful country but could be hard on folks. We used to joke that we had 4 seasons out there but spring lasted a week and fall was usually clocked in at 15 minutes.

Some more signs of spring

Just a few photos taken during the few breaks we have had from rain here in SE Kansas lately. Signs of Spring are everywhere.
Small variety of cherry we planted a few years ago. It was in a bundle of trees we odered from the States Parks and Wildlife Dept. Its a nice program, different bundles of trees can be purchased for songbirds or wind breaks or wildlife.
Our Peaches are blooming, hopefully we will not have a hard late freeze this year.