Count Down!

Least Bittern at Dewey's Pasture - Lost Island Marsh

I'm going to countdown over the next 4 weeks, at least once a week, to celebrate the return of Spring! We need something positive to look forward to here, and even though this has been one of the "prettiest" looking winters I can remember...it's been a lot of work!

I'm going to post an image (drawing, photograph or painting) each week to celebrate something I'm looking forward to this spring and when the weather warms. The top image I've posted is of a Least Bittern I photographed from my floating blind at Dewey's Pasture at Lost Island Marsh in Palo Alto County, Iowa.

Photographing from a blind is full of surprises and uncertainty. The morning I photographed this Bittern was mid spring; the cat-tails and rushes were just up and piercing through the layer of last year's dead vegetation. A wonderful and pungent time of the year to be on a marsh or slough! The sounds and smells are something I will never lose to memory...I love it!

Raccoon under the kitchen window bird feeder

Right into the first sentence of this blog entry a Raccoon sauntered past the studio window, and on up the kitchen path to a comfortable seat under the kitchen window! It has spring fever too! The little critter sat right under the sunflower feeder hanging above the window and started shoveling in the seed...think someone's hungry!

So I got the camera out and walked outside and over to the side yard fence and took a few pictures...it didn't seem to mind (or was too hungry to), but ran when the outside unit of the studio's air to air exchanger kicked on. Not too pretty of a setting but a fun diversion this afternoon.

4 weeks to go! see you at the Winter Thaw workshop!