the birds and the beez

This morning while walking the dog, I heard an unearthly racket, a clucking and chortling even some cawing. Sure enough over there, a single raven. He (I assume) was quite busy arranging and re arranging an old small caribou or seal bone on the hillside. Once he was satisfied, he (cover your ears kids) mounted it! The purring and clucking resumed. Time and again he would rearrange his props and settle into place. He was so absorbed in his task that he didn't even notice the big dog. Lonely Raven just lookin' for some lovin'. In contrast, down near the shoreline the pretty little snow buntings were cheerfully singing for their mates and dancing through the air.

For the gardeners in the group the tiniest flowers are beginning to bloom. I am amazed at how quickly they sprout up and produce their wee blossoms. A loonie is in the picture to present the perspective on it's size. My neighbour can identify many of the arctic blooms and we are planning on photographing many of them as they come into season.
Also on our walk tonight we spotted some quartz, seen here with loonie. Maybe quartz isn't so exciting (I was never able to find any in my backyard) but my daughter, like me, likes shiny things so I've added the photo!