Along Gravel Roads

Reacquainting ourselves with local things upon returning from abroad, we find that our spring pretty much paces that of middle Ireland, southern Switzerland, and southern Austria, where similar flowers such as lilac, lupine, ragged robin, and flowering chestnut and fruit trees appear synced.
Meandering along our gravel roads, where open fields alternate with swamp, we also note a first hay mowing here as as well as abroad. In one unmowed field, we found perhaps two dozen yellow-headed bobolinks displaying, as they chased each other about the field, which in its middle sported a large patch of ragged robin (click photos to enlarge).
A bit further along our way, we found a cluster of blue flag iris in a wet pasture, the first of that iris that we've noted here.
Along upper Giberson, a movement in a beaver pond became a large snapping turtle, perhaps looking for an appropriate gravel bank to bury its leathery eggs.
Within the same beaver pond we spotted many yellow flag iris, such as this cluster tucked behind an old stump.