A Circus

"Grumpy Hummer"

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Its been a regular circus around here lately....a circus because of how busy and preoccupied we've been.  But also because of the critters.

Love this male Ruby-throated Hummingbird from a couple days back - just a great expression!

And yesterday I was working in the studio and noticed out the window that I was being robbed in broad daylight!  Good grief, what's this world coming to?!!

"Masked Bandit"

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

OK, so it was just a Raccoon, but geeze...I'd been putting all the hanging bird feeders away at night so I guess they decided to hit us during daylight when we'd least expect it!

Later in the evening yesterday I heard a familiar sound and hoped I was wrong but ya...we had a lost baby looking for momma.

"Where's Momma?!"

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

The noise I was hearing was a bleating White-tailed Deer fawn.  This has happened before and I was holding my breath that this little guy's mother would find it again.  Some mowing had been taking place in a field just to our northwest and I'm thinking this fawn was in there and ran out from the disturbance...also there was a lot of field spraying going on just down the road from us, and a lot of vehicle noise and traffic on this normally quiet road.

But so far so good, we haven't been paid another visit yet nor have we been hearing any commotion, so maybe things are all good once again.

The rest of the circus for the month has been the process of putting together 56 pieces of work for the Neal Smith NWR down by Prairie City, east of Des Moines for July and August!  Man it takes a lot of time getting work put together, framed, printed, labeled, and you name it!  This solo exhibit is "prairie themed" and owns the same title as my last solo exibit in 2012 - "From the Tallgrass"...it is not a repeat of that same show however, so more work to get it ready!

Also I am in a new exhibit down in Storm Lake, Iowa right now - the 2014 Artisans Road Trip is having an exhibit at the Witter Gallery in Storm Lake.  This show began last week on June 5th and runs through June 27th.  Be sure and stop in to see the show (either one!) if you have time!

Back to the circus!

 

 

Its a Seesaw

Snow geese and the Gibbous Phase Moon

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

It can be a crazy time of the year, March.  One day is very hopeful for spring thaw and another blankets the ground again.  So it is each year, and this morning was no different when the landscape looked like winter once more, yet this afternoon the landscape's a blank canvas again and sunny.

The thing I like best about March is the sudden movement of the wildlife, with new species appearing, and - the sounds!

Last week it was difficult getting any work done for a couple days.  Every time I'd get in the middle of something, Georgie might show up and say "Have you looked outside"?  I'd stop what I was doing and go out to see clouds of Snow Geese moving through...it was really a fun sight.  Other times during those days, I'd actually hear the geese as they flew lower and over the studio.

White-tail Deer crossing Waterman Creek

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

The deer herd has shown its true numbers during the afternoon hours the past 3 weeks too.  Each winter, after the deer season has ended, some time seems to need to pass before we can get a good idea of what the spring population will look like.  They all seem so comfortable with daylight again, now that its been some time since the shooting stopped!  It looks like we'd better keep the fencing around the smaller trees in the yard for a few more weeks...each day we have a skiff of snow, we see deer tracks all over the yard...next to the house and studio.  Our pussy willow has become a salad bar again; we don't keep it corralled - the pruning doesn't seem to bother that bush too much.

The Robins are back, and the Juncos have returned on their trip north too.  The male Goldfinches are starting to show their molt to bright yellow, and the Cedar Waxwings are taunting me from the bushes each morning I come out...I say "taunting" because they seem to make a game of keeping their distance when I appear with my camera.

Tomorrow is the vernal equinox...the first day of spring, but next week sounds like we'll be getting chilled down a little again.   Its like a seesaw, and like that seesaw was as a kid, its fun!