Spring to Life

It's that time of the year when all creatures great and small start the new cycle of life to bare and rare or breed and feed their next generation of offspring. There's just something so wonderful about seeing creatures prepare for and nurture their young without the guidebooks that humans use to decide what's best for their baby. The animals just simply are born with that instinct to feed and nurture and at all costs protect their young from any apparent danger!

When I took my mother-in-law for a drive one evening this was the first of many wonderful views we would see, mamma nursing her calf . Mamma, with her maternal instincts kept a close eye on us while the bull just kept on eating were the little things we noted while we watched from a distance. 

The migrating seagulls have returned to mate along our coastline and they have to learn how to provide for their young family. It was so funny that all of the creatures were eating at our evening mealtime,  you'd swear they had clocks to tell them the time! This seagull pair were successful at fishing that day for their meal, they caught a male lump fish. We observed one of them struggling to eat a slippery fish on a slippery dinner plate and yes he lost it, hauled it back up and lost it again! Like all young parents they will get better at honing in on their skills through trial and error!

Driving a little farther along we had the privilege of viewing a group of saltwater ducks that were likely pairing up to start a family. It was very peaceful and rewarding to observe them having an evening diving  into the ocean and feeding.

Along our route back home guess "who" we saw? Yes, we couldn't believe our eyes...or his!!! A great horned owl  nonchalantly perched on the wire with his back towards us, eventually he did turn around and acknowledge us with his grandeur, thankfully.

A few minutes later he flew off hunting for a meal, aren't you glad you are not a mouse or smaller bird that he can get his talons into? But, it's all about survival and for his new family to survive he has to provide for them, to state it simply.

Our evening just kept getting better and better, look what else we spied along the way home... five Canada geese! They were also peacefully swimming, feeding and likely  picking out suitable real estate to build their nest and raise their goslings.

Last, but not least we caught sight of this little rabbit before he sprung off he was quite okay with posing for his pic to end off our evening so picture perfect. Everything had "sprung to life" compared to our observations a few weeks ago and we were so grateful that evening because of it!