Yards and woodlands were all atwitter over the past few days. It would appear that the spring bird migration was definitely getting warmed up despite some dips in the temperature. Canada geese settled at the neighbor's pond, but they weren't the only birds making an appearance.

This past Sunday's warm weather brought the first hummingbird of the season to the yard. It visited the feeder very sporadically and I was able to snap a couple of photos on Monday. I don't believe that the hummer was one of the regulars we feed during the summer. When Wednesday rolled around, there was no hummingbirds in sight.

The spring snowstorm on April 18 brought some chipping sparrows to the feeders. They appeared less than thrilled about the cold weather.

Over the next few days a couple of pairs of purple finches showed up a the feeders. While my sightings were  considered normal, an April 10 post on the Seneca Rocks Audubon  Society's Facebook page touted a rare visitor.
"A yellow-headed blackbird is currently being seen coming to the feeders of a residence near Knox. This is a rare visitor to Pennsylvania and Clarion County. This birds normal range is the mid-western plains of the US and Canada," the post said.

However the bird sighting that I was atwitter about was a barred owl that I first photographed in mid-April. I had heard owls calling over the past years, but wasn't able to capture any photos.

I absolutely loved this owl. It was so very cooperative in terms of pictures.

"The Barred Owl’s hooting call, 'Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?' is a classic sound of old forests and treed swamps. But this attractive owl, with soulful brown eyes and brown-and-white-striped plumage, can also pass completely unnoticed as it flies noiselessly through the dense canopy or snoozes on a tree limb," stated a post on allaboutbirds.org.

The post went on to say that "the great horned owl is the most serious predatory threat to the barred owl. Although the two species often live in the same areas, a barred owl will move to another part of its territory when a great horned owl is nearby."

However the post on allaboutbirds.org raised the possibility that the owl I photographed might just stick around.
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"Barred owls don’t migrate, and they don’t even move around very much. Of 158 birds that were banded and then found later, none had moved farther than 6 miles away," the post stated.

The bumblebees were also out and about feeding on some trailing arbutus.

More and more spring flowers were encouraged by the warm weather this past weekend.

Sherman decided to help the flowers out by watering them.

Clem then felt compelled to follow suit. That's just the nature of things 'round here.

In the interest of health and safety, only one cat, Wiggles, was captured for an Easter photo. None of the animals were harmed in the making of this post. Well, some of them may have had their pride hurt.

A rare sunny day prompted one of the annual Applegate animals' Easter photo shoot. The goal was to make Easter cards, but that didn't happen. Friends and relatives would just have to be happy with Facebook posts.

Originally, the session started with all four dogs out and about. That was determined to lead to failure. Either one was in the shot or no one was in the shot. There may have been one good opportunity, then there was a fuzzy butt photobombing session. Gus also decided he needed to try to eat the plastic Easter eggs used as props when I was distracted. Every few minutes I had to pry one out of his slobbery jowls.

 So it was quickly determined that the photos would take place one dog at a time. This seemed to work better and treat dispensing could be done more accurately. My parents' house wasn't originally intended to be in the backdrop, but I had to take what I could get.

I did get at least what considered four good photos for the cards that never happened.

Of course, there were many photo fails and outtakes. Those garnered the most Facebook comments and likes.

One commenter asked why they're weren't any goat photos this year. It was because I valued my health and safety. However, they saw me coming with the bunny ears and went into hiding. I was able to capture Kennedy eating a daffodil that I was trying to photograph.

Meanwhile, things were looking a bit more like spring outside with the daffodils opening.

Needless to say, some of the daffodils were harmed in the making of this post. That's just the nature of things 'round here.

​The cast and crew of The Nature of Things wishes you all a Happy Easter.

Also last year, I had posted photos of blooming violets in early April. This year only the violet's leaves have made an appearance so far.

An article titled "The Wood Frog, a Frog for All Seasons" by  by Kelly Vowels  on the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest's site bernheim.org explained how the eggs may have survived freezing temps.
 Wood frog "eggs are adapted for this fluctuating temperatures. The mucoprotein jelly around the eggs have a melting period higher than the fluids found in the eggs.

So when the ponds freeze, the jelly will freeze before the egg and will pull water out from the egg. These dehydrated eggs are more resistant to freeze and are more able to survive the fluctuating temperatures in late winter and early spring," Vowels posted.
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With this new information, I had hope that the eggs would produce tadpoles.

It did appear that the neighborhood deer were starting to shed their winter coats.

 That's the nature of things 'round here.
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Weekly checks of the trail cameras in the surrounding woods often makes me giggle.

The motion-triggered cameras captured deer and other wildlife with their natural and curious expressions.

What causes the deer to take interest in the cameras could be a variety of things. The cameras are an unusual bump on the tree with a different smell.

Some cameras also may have emitted an audible click when snapping a photo. A click that would not have been a natural sound.

Some of the night vision on the cameras emit a red light at night that would also create a distraction.

I just love the deer's inquisitive and innocent expressions. It is a chance to get face-to-face with them that I may not necessarily have when viewing them in person.

Meanwhile, a series of photos showed that a raccoon shared the spotlight with the deer feeding on a mineral block.

In addition to the deer and raccoon, a puffed up male turkey strutted his stuff in front of a camera. I speculated it may have been a selfie for a Tinder profile.

My trail cameras did show that the wood ducks had returned to the neighbor's pond. A photo-bombing deer also entered into the shot.

Aside from the game cameras, I was able to get a couple of photos of a brown creeper. Longtime birder and author of "Birds of Venango County," Gary Edwards wrote that the creeper is an uncommon year-round resident for Venango County. He penned that migrants moving north peak in April. That statement may have explained the creeper's recent appearance.

As I impatiently waited for the colors of spring to appear, the trail cameras were a much needed distraction.

Of course the deer weren't the only ones who get up close and personal with the camera. It was a daily struggle to keep Kennedy, the goat from messing with the camera. He adjusted the angles with crooked photos as a results.
​That's just the nature of things 'round here.