Blue Heron - evening silhouette

Blue Heron - evening silhouette
Originally uploaded by Minnesota Daybreak

This evening after a celebratory dinner in Dorset (in honor of a couple new retirees) we stopped by the rookery to see what we could see. There were quite a few Herons in the nests. We happened to be there when one of the birds came in to feed her huge babies - an occasion that set them squawking loudly. The lighting was poor, but I liked the images it produced - the silhouette effect.

Quote:

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."
- Luciano Pavarotti

Lake Ice, 3/27/2010

From the look of the lake we could have one of the earliest ice-outs ever.  This photo from today shows that the ice has separated from the shoreline and it has that sort of slushy look, along with the tell-tale dark color of an old green Coke bottle.  However, no big cracks have opened up across it yet.  Still, with today's light rain and the promise of very mild temperatures in the coming week, it's all looking very promising.  I wonder if we might actually have a hot summer this year... that would be almost as much of a novelty as the ice going out early.

Red Fox

This morning I saw a red fox go under a neighbor's deck. I observed this several times two winters back also, but wasn't around enough last year to see him. (or her?) I grabbed my small camera and got one shot before it slipped from view. These pictures are the full shot and an enhanced, cropped portion of the same photo.

I've read that foxes have their kits around the middle of March. This Fox does not look pregnant and so is perhaps a male.

Cross Reference: Remedy For Sadness

“The remedy for sadness is prayer. But as sadness broods in selfishness and is inclined to rest rather in our own unhappy thoughts than on God, the soul turns to prayer with reluctance. Hence the saddened one must first turn to God by vocal prayer, persevering in which, that reluctance will be overcome; and as the sadness subsides, the spirit will enter anew into the heart of prayer. The second remedy against sadness is generosity. For the malady consists in morbid concentration upon oneself and a brooding within one’s self that repels sympathy and kindness as being adverse to this melancholy mood, a mood that can only be cherished in isolation of the spirit. But let the will make a little effort to be kind and considerate toward another and it is amazing how soon that malignant charm is broken that held the soul spellbound to her saddened thoughts and imaginary grievances. A smile, a kind look, a few gentle words, a considerate action, though begun with effort, will suffice to open the soul and set the spirit free from it’s delusion.”
[WILLIAM BERNARD ULLATHORNE]