Early April Surprises

...yes, snow in April!  
On April 3rd I went to Great Meadows in Concord to try to capture the snow highlighting Spring buds.

There were also plenty of other surprises - a mallard seeming to decide to sleep through the rude April snow, a song sparrow singing his heart out, a heron taking flight and the swallows' acrobatic flying!
(Click on the photos to see them in more detail and click the X in upper right to return here.)

Snow and ice on green buds against the beautiful sky

Glowing ice over crimson buds

Song Sparrow singing his heart out!  It must be courtship time - "I'm here - come listen to my love song and see how handsome I am!!"

 I was thrilled to watch a heron walking and then take a short scoot to what I can only imagine was a better fishing spot. 

This heron was walking from right to left into deeper and deeper water....

Then he or she started to take off...

...and took a short flight to a better spot...

Right here looks good....

Perfect!  He puffed out his feathers after landing which was interesting.

I spotted a male mallard in the reeds next to some snow and he moved, but amazingly did not fly away from me.  He tucked his head in his feathers as if to say "April snow!  You've got to be kidding - I'm going to sleep until it melts!"

I'm sleeping until it's warmer!

 The tree swallows were back at Great Meadows.  How do you tell if there are hundreds or thousands?  They were everywhere.  They fly like fighter jets - or fighter jets want to fly like these birds. 

This is the best photo I got - he's going SO fast!

So aerodynamic - just perfect in flight!

Zooming up up up before turning! I saw one turn, fly upside down and then right itself.

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