Spring Is In The Air

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You know Spring is definitely here when you see birds mating.  This House Sparrows do what comes natural when it starts to warm up.  Did you know that the House Sparrow was introduced to New York in 1850 and by 1910 had spread to California.  They are so prevalent that they have become pests, taking over a native bird's nest.  They have been known to aggressively destroy Bluebird eggs.
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 Another pest of sorts, is the Dandelion, here seen as a yellow flower and what the flower turns into, a sphere of parachute seeds that fly with the wind to grow somewhere else.

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Every Spring I look forward to seeing certain plants bloom.  This one, called the Bleeding Heart, did especially well this year.  Named after the pink, heart-shaped flower, from which a little "drop of blood" dangles at the bottom.  They only bloom for a short time, so I enjoy them every day that I can.

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While walking the trails at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, we came across this deer.  He seemed just as surprised as we were.

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Today, the wind was perfect for "whirlybirds".  These are the seeds of the Maple, which twirl like little helicopters down to the ground.

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This is a daisy Gloria picked up.  It has a long latin name: Osteospermum, but it's also called an African Daisy.

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One of my favorite trees is the Dogwood.  It bursts with flowers every Spring.  I love the creamy white petals yellow cluster of what is probably seeds.  It sure would be nice if it bloomed all year, but then we wouldn't look forward to the next Spring season would we.