Signs of Spring

Spring is finally here and I love seeing and photographing all the animals and the flowers and trees that are blooming everywhere. I love all the colors and smells that spring brings. 

Animals on the scene 

A salamander swimming in my sister's pond on Easter Sunday 

Baby ducks at the pond at the Hintz Alumni Center on campus 

Mama's keeping them warm 

Swim babies swim 

they are so fuzzy and cute 

The squirrels are always in the trees overhead 

A chipmunk came to get some seeds 

My cardinal Guardian and his wife Angel are always around 

Guardian likes to hang out in the trees overhead 

Flowers and trees 

One of the really pretty pink blooming trees on campus. I like to sit here and breathe deep 

The light on these new leaves was beautiful 

Some Narcissus on campus -- so pretty in the early light 

We really have some great landscaping on campus. I love the flowers all around the tree

 Rhododendrons are all over campus. I lobe how the branches on this one cascade 

and  a single bloom in the afternoon light 

Grape hyacinths

  Loved the light on these daffodils 

As I said great landscaping on campus -- these blooming trees surround the stairwells 

All the colors are just so pretty 

A pretty pink rose with some water droplets 

A lot of white narcissus on campus 

 The landscaping and mix of colors are always so nice 

Anoher nice blooming rose 

We have red buds all over campus and the flowers are so pretty 

love the combination of orange and purple 

Some pretty yellow tulips 

One of our glorious blooming trees 

and some close up of the blooms -- against the blue sky 

and the green grass 

and a close up of some individual flowers

 I love how some of the buds are on the tree trunk .. 

 We always have beautiful bleeding hearts ... 

 and finally some purple hyacinths t

I love the shape of the flowers 

Thanks as always for sharing my photography with me.  Stay tuned for more  of the lovely colors of spring :D

Life at the pond

The pond at the Hintz Alumni Center on campus is one of my favorite places to go, relax, read, and take pictures of not only the pond but the life that lives in and around it. Its starting to get warmer out and so the animals are back in abundance. These pictures are from Monday and Wednesday of this week.

I'm starting out with some ducks because they are the most active and prevalent type if wildlife this time of year and I enjoy trying to get new and different photos of them 

This duck was right in the middle under the bridge and looking right at me. I love how still he is and his reflection

I had to share these because as many times as I have gone to the pond and watched the ducks I have never seen one up in the tree 

I really liked the light and silhouette in this shot 

And I found it really funny to find a duck up on the second floor of the building

Again I loved how still this duck was and the color of the water and her reflection

There are often other birds around and I saw this guy in one of the trees -- another beautiful bird 

And I thought this was fun how the birds were walking parallel along the path

I thought this was such a pretty wide view of the pond with its turtles, fish and ducks

And a turtle just basking in the sun 

I often see ducks just resting by the side of the pond -- this was just so pretty and peaceful i had to take his picture 

I loved how pretty the reflections in the water were in this photo 

And even the squirrels come around. They often come to the bottom where I sit to get a drink because its quieter. 

and then the squirrel noticed I was taking his picture 

This duck was being very noisy and I caught him mid quack and reflected in the water too -- love it 

When the sun shines on the water like it did last night its so pretty and this duck was swimming right towards me -- thought it was a fun picture to capture 

I've been bringing sunflower seeds  to share with the animals -- this squirrel certainly enjoyed them

My cardinal Guardian had to show me how much he loved the seeds -- it looks like he's smiling 

Guardian is a beautiful and very plump bird. I see him all the time and I think he preens just for me 

He's such a show off -- as long as I don't get too close 

He was fluffing his feathers for me 

This chipmunk was also enjoying the seeds -- look how fat his cheeks are 

and it froze when I moved a step closer 

I don't see the female cardinal as much as Guardian but even she came down to get seeds last night 

She mostly stays in the trees -- I love this silhouette of her 

and she was definitely watching me 

And you can really see Guardian enjoying the seeds ... 

perching by the water -- he does that for me a lot and did it again last night 

then he decided to take a bath ... 

and a couple more quick poses ... showing his good side 

and just enjoying his meal 

It really is amazing how much life I find at the pond. I spent over an hour with Guardian getting all those different poses. I think we see each other at the pond enough that he is getting used to me and my camera -- and its been fun for me bringing seeds and watching .

Thanks as always for sharing my photos with me. Until next time ..... .