Bringing in the cows: Spring is on the way

Barn owl

Milking this morning and on the way there I got to see a Barn owl swooping down the lane in front of me. Barn owls can be quite ghostly apparitions with their white undersides, swooping over you in half light and silence. Then an even more joyous sight. Two hares sitting on a crossroad I pass. My second sighting of hares this year already. We don't get many hares in this area, because it ain't real hare type of country. I think because of this, farmers in this area hold them in more reverence than in the big open crop farming areas and I know farmers in this area, who think it sacrilege to harm a hare. 

Spring is on it's way in the cow yard. The cows have all slipped their coats and there is a lot of skipping, hopping and the occasional buck as they come through the parlour. A slight rattle of the gate out in to the meadows and within minutes the girls line up at the gate mooing excitingly waiting to go out, but they will have to wait a day or two yet for the grass to green up a bit more before they can be let out.
As I arrived this morning, just getting light, the dawn chorus was in full swing making a cacophony of sound, as birds defend territories and try to attract a mate. The morning arrival to milk inspired a verse of poetry.

Spring hares

Spring has just begun!

Winter lets go it's cold embrace
The sun returns to warm the face
Territories to be kept and won
Birds throw song in full lung
Hares, frolic and bound, 
​time for a mate to be found
There's love making to be done.
Spring has just begun!