Looking for Spring in all the Right Places

We had the Spring Equinox four days ago but it seems Spring was a little shy about coming to the party...

 These daffodils are usually among the first to bloom in my garden; I can see buds so doubtless they are trying hard to be ready for Spring. The dried long stalks are from last year's New England asters and you can see shoots coming through for this year in the left front corner.

The Stachys byzantina (lamb's ear) is beginning to poke through the debris left from last year.

 Wishing for cherry blossoms! There are some buds but I'm not thinking we are going to be seeing the tree full of the frothy blossoms any time soon.

 The reliable chives are 3" - 4" high already even though the grass in the background looks pitiful.

But in a sure sign of spring the ospreys are back from wintering over in South America. Last year I got hooked on watching the live ospreycam that the Chesapeake Conservancy sponsors. I did not find out about it until fairly well into the season so this year I am looking forward to watching the entire process - usually it begins with the arrival of the male osprey who starts the nest building process. We did a screen capture around midday today and the first few sticks for the foundation of the nest have been gathered just this morning as last night the platform was bare of anything save the one osprey. It was fairly windy on the Chesapeake today and by the end of the day some of these twigs have disappeared.

If you'd like to watch the nest building, egg laying and sitting, egg hatching, chick raising and more then go to http://www.chesapeakeconservancy.org/Osprey-Cam and be prepared to get hooked on watching these wonderful birds.

I have cast an eye on the hummingbird migration map and see that they are on the way also. According to that map the first ones are spotted in my state any time within the next week. However in my back yard it is quite a few weeks more before I am seeing reliable visitors to my feeder. Gosh knows there is nothing at all in my garden right now to sustain them.

Last week I bought myself a new camera and started a six week photography class so I am looking forward to being able to post much better photographs of my natural habitat this summer.