There may be snow on the ground and a chill to the air still, but you can bet that the birds and the bees (if you know what I mean) know it's spring! Now's the time to get out and find your spring project.

Leave your camera at home, grab your binoculars and notepad and become a spring sleuth. Now's when birds are pairing up, setting up territories and looking for nesting sites. Now's when many small mammals have their first litter, ungulates drop their young or predatory mammal's young are just emerging from the den for the first time like these endangered San Joaquin Kit Foxes in the photo (these pups are just five weeks old).

Finding these things right now is easier then in a month from now. The reason is because the grasses and shrubs don't have all their spring growth yet so seeing the action in them is easy to spot. Now's the time to find your next subject and make plans to photograph it. Starting now gives you at least a month to learn more about your subject and prepare photographically to capture your subject on film!

So let the spring bug bite you, get out and enjoy the warmth of the sun, the song of the birds and the passion of photography, let it awaken you!

MP-NPN