Sunday in the park

A female merlin in the Nethermead. Again. My birthday is this month if anybody wants to get me a real bird camera.
A bud camera, on the other hand, I've got covered.... Did you know these buds -- all tree and bush buds -- were formed last year? They have waited -- and will wait some more -- all winter. Until, judging by the temperature and the amount of daylight, they will unfurl, they will bloom, they will explode. Leaf and flower and pollen. Like this, budded tight, they can handle the cold, the very cold. About the only thing that will get them now is the weight of an ice storm, breaking off twigs and branches. Because our growing season is so short, relatively, here in the temperate zone, the trees need a leg-up, a jump on the race. So they prime themselves for spring more than half a year in advance.
This osage orange fruit was being munched on by a squirrel. I think it was probably stuck up in a tree, and recently knocked down, since all the other fruits are long, long gone.
Another bud, another bundle of potential. This is a buckeye of some kind.

It was a glorious day. Not as cold as Saturday, and much more sun. In the middle of all this glory, in the middle of the day, there were not that many people in the park. Joggers mostly. Pity, for there was so much to see and revel in.