I have been in the USA for the last four weeks and am now home.  Since I was there almost exactly at the same time last year, I didn't expect to see anything different.  But I did.  There were no new flowers that I saw, especially, as I was told, it had been an unusually warm March.  What I did see were a skunk scurrying across my son's yard.  I know it is a nuisance to my son, who is an avid gardener, but the skunk really is a beautiful animal with those colours.  Then there were baby rabbits, as bold as brass, out eating the grass in the backyard, not at all scared of my little granddaughter, till she tried catching it.  I saw, at the lake nearby, gaggles of wild geese, many with little ones, as well as a duck family--father, mother and little ones--sail past too.  I saw a family of geese with the tiniest little ones, cross the road carefully, while we parked our cars and waited.  Then of course there were squirrels playing tag and the birds--chickadees, robins, magpies, a woodpecker, red-winged magpies and a cardinal or two.  As usual I did not have  my camera during these encounters!  Thoroughly enjoyable wild life encounters all.

April has been very hot and quite dry this year, with the usual April showers few and far between except for this last week.  So, I have been keeping my bird bath/watering hole filled and there have been birdy visitors as well as squirrels coming to drink from it.  But I didn't get to see many of the visitors because it was so hot out, apart from the fact that my young grandson was here and his noise would have scared the birds away.
Then on a recent afternoon mid-April, while we were having lunch, there was so much noise at the waterhole, I crept outside to take a look at what was going on.  I saw around 5 different types of birds, the first time i had seen so many of them venture so close to the house.  The bird bath, though in a sort of bower, is near a private road, where people and the occasional car pass.  So the birds must have been really hot and thirsty to venture so close.  I tred to take a picture, but couldn't get a clear pic as I was too far away.
Anyway, from the next week, the summer showers started in earnest and so the bird gatherings have stopped.