common_nature | Lake Pictures

Today we went out to the lake. The first few pictures are from my yard, though.

This is a wide view of the rain garden. There are now at least two shades of lavender, white, and purple-and-white-striped crocuses blooming.

Crocuses are blooming in the rain garden, with a closeup of the striped one.

More flowers are blooming in the goddess garden.

This is one of the butterfly gardens at the lake. Ideally, it's a good idea to cut the dead stems in late winter so the sunlight can reach the ground better, but I don't think anyone bothers to do that here.

Not much is growing yet. These might be asters sprouting.

This is the spillway at the lake. The water level should be a lot higher, but at least it's running.

I spotted a pair of owls guarding this little building. I thought they were the usual foam kind.

These mechanical owls are guarding this little building.

Nope. These are ROBOT OWLS! This owl is now looking sideways.

The owl is looking over its own back. Aside from the fact that these have ears and are brown rather than gold, I think they look a lot like Bubo.

There are two Canada geese on the islet. Out in the water, the little pale dot with the dark head is probably a mallard (which are common here) but might be a common merganser (which are also in range).

There are two Canada geese on the islet. Out in the water, the little pale dot is probably a mallard.

This path crosses over the lake.

The large white dot appears to be a pelican. I don't know what the tiny white ones are. They flew in sparkling flocks over the lake several times, but never got close enough to see clearly.

This pair of Canada geese was close enough for a decent picture. Look close and you can see that that black dot on the left is a red-winged blackbird. There were a bunch of them calling back and forth with their sweet summer voices. It's very early to see them here.