Blooming Maple

The red maple in our backyard is blooming and has been since earlier this month. I photographed it from my window on the 3rd (with a dove looking back toward my window. Maybe it sensed it was being watched.),

With snow on the 7th (there were doves in the tree again…fluffed to keep warm.  I wondered if the weather was going to damage the flowers, but it didn’t get below freezing for very long.)

And yesterday (when the flowers looked even more numerous than before).

I went outside yesterday to get a closeup of the flowers.

The red maple is probably one of my favorite trees in the spring because it blooms before just about everything except the earliest of bulbs…and it’s the only red in the scene!