One of my favorite things to do in spring is to grab some field gear and walk, slowly and without purpose. It’s exhilarating, the vivid colors, species richness and animal activities teasing all of the senses. A purpose may materialize around the next bend in the trail, or not. The anticipation alone is a recreational high. And the rewards invariably appear.
Great Crested Flycatcher, nest-building
Midland Painted Turtle; searching for a wetland habitat
Blue-winged Warbler, foraging for insects in a wild apple tree
Wood Frog in a moist, poorly drained woodland habitat
Raven
Flowers and developing leaves of a mature Red Oak tree
Baltimore Oriole, male, foraging on insects (possibly nectar too) on a wild apple tree in full bloom
11-month-old white-tailed deer, buck, browsing on the new foliage of woody plants
The mother of the young buck, feeding on the new leaves of Sugar Maple
Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.
Nick's Nature Pics 
Awesome Nick! I was going to comment on the first one, but as I scrolled down, all of them were incredible! Great photography!
Thank you!! After several solo walks over as many days, the images started begging for an audience and I had to post them. All were within a half mile of home, and the presentation sequence more or less duplicated the actual field encounters.
I’ll go with ‘awesome’ too. It strikes me that you have far more diversity back east. Out here it’s mostly conifers and the dreaded tree farms (the tree equivalent to mowed lawns).
These photos are fantastic….thanks for sending them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think the warbler is my personal favorite! Linda
On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 9:49 PM, Nick’s Nature Pics wrote:
> Nick Hunter posted: “One of my favorite things to do in spring is to > grab some field gear and walk, slowly and without purpose. It’s > exhilarating, the vivid colors, species richness and animal > activities teasing all of the senses. A purpose may materialize around the > next ben”
Good to hear from you Linda. I wish you could see the ones that got away. I managed just 4 pics of the warbler before it disappeared. Working a tiny object in perpetual motion, at the extreme limit of my lens, is a real crap shoot for me. In the 2 sharpest photos, its head was behind a twig. The photo with the pose to die for was….out of focus. !@#$%^&*! Always appreciate your visits and supporting comments. Very motivating!!!
wonderful photos, I specially like the first bird, That’s funny
I saw my first great created flycatcher a couple of years ago and I was thrilled! They’re such beautiful birds and you captured an amazing photo! I love your other ones as well, but that one is probably my favorite. 🙂
Thanks Angela. They have been nesting here for several years now, choosing one specific “bluebird” nest box – the one that had the original 1.5 inch opening enlarged by red squirrels. I have many photos but the one in the post is my favorite too. I just took a couple more shots today and might include one in my next post.
Fantastic pictures, Nick! Especially the Flycatcher, I *LOVE* it!!
The backlighting on the white-tail deer buck really makes that shot, lovely capture.