Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) have returned to the Bay to begin the spring season.  The call of a laughing gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) sounds cheerful, as if reminding everything that warmer weather is on the way.  Water oaks are beginning to burst into their pollen-heavy yellow flowers and neighbors are mulching their yards already fragrant from the blossoming of cultivated saucer magonlias (Magnolia x soulangeana).  The orchestra of the impending hot summer is beginning to tune.  Spring has started across the southern Chesapeake Bay.  

The Lafayette River on a balmy early spring evening.  March 12, 2013.  Colley Avenue bridge.  (Click to enlarge)

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