Moving into Summer

By the calendar we still have a few days to go but with the heat wave that has settled across our region it feels as if summer is already upon us.  I haven't shot much lately and have spent very little of the long precious evenings on the computer.  Other task such as lawn mowing, planting and weeding our vegetable garden along with other interest like fishing or reading a good book on the deck as the sun creeps below the horizon has kept me outside enjoying the warm weather as this year's cold wet spring becomes a memory.

With the onset of summer the yucca highlighted by the setting sun is nearly ready to bloom; a reminder that summer is nearly here. 

After all of the frenetic mating activity among the local Wood Ducks that I photographed early this year a recent visit to the wetlands revealed the fruits of their labors. 

Growing like the proverbial weed this years hatch of ducklings are doing very well.  The ducklings spend little time with their mothers now dispersing throughout the marsh to forage alone or in pairs.  Although this habit does not allow the ducklings the advantage of having a watchful adult maintaining a lookout for danger it does reduce the likelihood of a predator being able to capture multiple ducking in one attack. 

Considering how quickly this duckling went from calmly feeding to fleeing at the click of the shutter from about fifteen yards away it doesn't appear to require the attention of an adult to keep it safe.