A sure sign that spring has arrived....

We got up to thunderstorms this morn...they rolled around, left and then came back a time or two. Everything got a good soaking...in fact, some places still have puddles of water even though the sun was out before noon.
You might think the sure sign of spring I was talking about is the thunderstorms, but in fact, I meant that the buzzards are back in full force. Roger worked around in his shop all morn, while I fooled in here...playing on the computer and making a meatloaf...about the time we got done with lunch a friend of mine stopped by. I ask her if she wanted a bite to eat, but she didn't care for anything. We took our Cokes and sat on the front porch in the shade and visited for a few minutes.
After she left, Roger and I decided to go for a drive. Any direction we looked, we saw buzzards circling. I do not know what about this area draws them, but there are just so many of them. Last year they were like this, and we went down south of Terre Haute at least a couple of different times, and hardly saw any. We both just could not believe the difference in the number.

Now, I saw a few along all winter on the way to Sarah's house...but it would be like one or two. And only that...oh, and speaking of Sarah's house....here is a little video that she sent me of a new singing star. Enjoy!

A little this and that

This morn it snowed and sleeted for just a little while. I actually was beginning to think we might get a good dusting, when it quit. Then my daughter wanted to know if I wanted to run to Walmart with her...we took a little detour on the way there and back. And after we got back, Roger and I went back out to the 'detour.' By detour, I mean the strip pit area where several of my photos have come from this past few months.
I did not get the images I wanted either time..not good images. So will go back and try another day. But I did get these. I feel like this vulture is looking over his shoulder say, "Hey, you want to come over to my place?" I don't know why, but that is the first thing I think when I look at it.
Anyway, I would estimate that 95% or more of the trees in this area are bare...just one with color every now and then. When we were over in Paris, going down a street where there was no place to park, there was one tree that was almost a red as brilliant as the barn in the last picture.
At the local strip pit, most of the moss was gone, but there were still these lily pads. When I first got close, there were lots of bubbles coming to the top..we wondered was a turtle down below or what.
As for this barn, it really is this color red. I did not alter this picture anyway. It is a color red that will about knock your eyes out in real life. And notice the mower in the foreground...when I was a kid we had one of these that was for horses.

Maybe we should have a day called Buzzard Birdwatch, or something. I just got to thinking about when I went for my drive the other day...everywhere I went I seen buzzards. The above vulture is the first I captured, I missed a good photo of one on top of a barn with its wings outspread. I am not sure why they do this...I am currently trying to find the reason they do this.

If you look close at the photo below, there are two vultures on the roof towards the right side...I didn't notice them till I had done taken the pictures and I was there probably 4 or 5 minutes.

And below this is yet again another covered bridge. It is another one in Parke County, Indiana. It spans Sugar Creek--a place my husband and I plan to fish this summer. We have fished it some in years past but always on the weekend. Canoeing is very popular on this creek so not much fun to fish on the weekends. But husband will be retiring the first week of June so we should have all the time in the world to wade this creek.

He will probably use an ultra light most of the time, but I know he will fly-fish it some. I don't fly fish...I have never tried. If I try to picture myself fly-fishing all I can see is a wad of line back in my face. But who knows, I might give it a try sometime. I have an ultra light rod and reel combo that you could not buy from me--specially the rod. They don't make it any more. I done broke one--no, not on a fish, but during fishing. To make a long story short, we went to the two sporting goods stores in Terre Haute, and to the Kmarts and whatever else carried rods and reels back then. At the last Kmart we went to, they had two rods, on sale because they were the last of them, and my husband wisely insisted on buying both.

I tend to use these little jigs with a weed guard, or Johnson Silver Minnows, and sometimes beetlespins....I never fish in the creeks with live bait...though every now and then I like to take worms and go to a strip pit and throw a line out and just watch it. Though even then, I will have the line and bobber out, but will be casting about with my ultra light.

ETA: Just found that people believe the reason vultures will stand with outspread wings are for multiple reasons: warming the body, drying the wings, and/or baking off bacteria.