MOMENTOUS DAY...

...in that the first daffodil finally popped open this morning and the second followed this afternoon.
Today was a gorgeous, warm and sunny day and one that feels somehow earned after the cold and dark of winter.
On my levee walk this morning I saw Canadian Geese ( she nesting, he honking), a Mallard couple ( she nesting, he quacking), a threatening osprey high up on a treetop ( she was surely nesting somewhere),  two blue herons ( both making that get-away-from- here herony honk) and two of my favorite ducks, the Golden Eye.

I love so much about this little black on the top, white on the lower half, golden-eyed little duckaloo and the thing I love best is their playfulness.  They are like wee avian otters.  They dive under the water seeming to defy any need for air by staying submerged for a long, long time.  When they pop back up it is always a good distance from where the went under and always with a kind of jolly explosion.  HERE I am!  Yesterday, further down the river where there are large sections of not quite rapids but of very swift water, I watched two of them ride the current as far as it would go and the fly back up to the top to do it again.  I am always happy to see a Golden Eye.