Oh, Honey, how nice to see you!

On the recent warmish days, I've been getting quick glimpses of occasional honeybees zooming through the dormant garden.  Today, I watched as one circled my tiny iris ...and after crouching on the ground a foot away, camera poised, the bee finally returned!  Once again, patience paid off.  

I don't ever remember seeing bees this early - certainly nothing in my photo archives.  It's been a few months since I did any insect macro, so quite a few of my shots were just atrocious.  But I like this one well enough, as well as one that I posted on Flickr.  Blip in the bag.  

The cardinals are now in full song - territories are being established and before long the chasing will start.  This morning, a bright red male sat on one of our cherry trees for a solid 10 minutes, whistling his spring song.  The nuthatches have added their yank-yank-yank duets to the mix, so the springsong orchestra is slowly gaining momentum.  Soon, we'll be hearing spring peepers (frogs) singing in the wetland areas.

Hubs and I had a nice chat this morning with my parents; while we were talking, I glanced out just in time to see a little sharp-shinned hawk careen through the patio and land on a shepard's crook.  As soon as I reached for a camera, he was gone.  Empty taloned, too - bad for him, good for the backyard birds.  

Thanks for the lovely comments on my portrait of Peggy and Kura yesterday.  I really am so very lucky to have friends like them.  

Cheers, people.