Flower Mound River Walk, March 2020

It's been nearly three months since I've been out shooting pictures. Of course, the itch to do so hit me last week when conditions were either consistently overcast or outright raining. The sun triumphantly re-emerged this week, which is great. But you may be aware of a little global pandemic going on at the moment that according to most experts will only be slowed down by dramatically restricting movement. So that meant a walk around the neighborhood, which has frankly been long overdue.

Not surprisingly, sunshine and warm temperatures following an extended stretch of wet weather has gotten the plant life bursting out all over.

Eastern Redbuds are blooming along the walking trail.

Black and white really brings out the texture and contrast in these desiccated Chinaberry, um, berries.

Rusty Blackhaw is also in full bloom already.  The wildflower season in Texas is fairly brief, but even so some of the flora is clearly wasting no time since we're not even officially a week into spring yet.

The recent rains definitely have the creeks running happily.

Lots of Red-eared Sliders were out basking in the sun.  I don't know enough about reptilian parenting to know if these might be a mother and child.

If you're going to a common bird like the Mallard, it's nice that the males at least have striking head plumage.  I love the little bit of iridescence you get when the sun hits their feathers just right.

I wasn't sure what to make of this poor bedraggled Domestic Duck.  He moved as if his right leg might be hurt or partially missing, and by that I mean not very much and not very fast.  I'll be curious to see if he's around very long.

Not surprisingly, there was plenty of beauty right outside my front door.  It's sort of a shame it's taken a deadly disease outbreak to make me notice it!