SIGNS OF SPRING, 2010

SIGNS OF SPRING, 2010

The Northern Hemisphere once more begins its tilt towards the Sun, awakening flowers, ushering in new life, and coaxing people outdoors once again. The changing of the season is easily observed in gardens, parks, zoos, farms, festivals and more. Collected here are a handful of photographs showing signs of Spring, 2010, as the final remnants of last winter start to melt away.

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A five-week-old Chinchilla rabbit nibbles grass at a rabbit farm in Moosburg north of Munich March 22, 2010. The rabbits at the farm are bred to compete in rabbit shows.

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Flowers are seen in Carlsbad, north of San Diego, California, March 29, 2010. The nearly fifty acres of Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers that make up The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch are in a full bloom for approximately six to eight weeks each year, from early March through early May.

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A beekeeper holds up a comb of honeybees on the outskirts of Hefei, Anhui province, China on April 5, 2010. The beekeeper is part of a group from Shandong province who travel across China from south to north with their honeybees as they follow the time of flowering.

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A lamb is given shelter from cold weather in the kitchen of a farm house near Cushendun, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on April 2, 2010. Severe weather in Northern Ireland has resulted in farmers losing large numbers of newly born lambs and thousands of homes left without electricity.

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In this March 21, 2010 photo, Avery Smith, 23, of White River Junction, Vt., makes her first attempt at pond skimming during the the fourth annual end of season Junk Show at Whaleback Mountain in Enfield, New Hampshire.

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Anya Deutsch, almost 3 years old, keeps up with her sister Elsa in an Easter egg hunt at their grandparents house on April 4th, 2010 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. The two wore rubber rain boots because the ground was still wet and spongy from recent rains.

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Iraqi Kurds celebrate the Nowruz spring festival with fireworks in the Kurdish town of Akra in Iraq's Mosul region, 500 kms north of Baghdad, on March 20, 2010. The Persian new year, which coincides with the vernal (Spring) equinox, is a Zoroastrian tradition celebrated by Iranians and Kurds.

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Sophie Olson makes her way through the tulip fields of the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon on Saturday, March 27, 2010. The 25th Anniversary Tulip Fest opened Thursday March 25 and will run through April 25.

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The top of the Washington Monument is through one of the cherry trees in the Washington Monument grove on April 2, 2010 in Washington, DC. The Japanese Government gave 3,800 Yoshino trees to Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Johnson, as gifts for her beautification of Washington project in 1965.

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A tourist uses her Blackberry to snap a picture of the cherry blossoms as she tours the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, April 1, 2010 during the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

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Bagpipers line the parade route for 28 swans heading from their winter quarters to the Avon River in Stratford, Ontario on Sunday, April 4, 2010.

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A magpie stands in a park were crocuses blossom in the western German city of Dusseldorf on March 23, 2010 as the sun shines and meteorologists predicted even warmer weather over the coming days.

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A man reaches for a flower in a field at Carlsbad Ranch in Carlsbad, California on March 29, 2010.

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A group of tourists watch as a gray whales emerges from the water at the San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California Sur, Mexico on February 28, 2010. A small-scale whale-sightseeing industry was developed in the remote spot of San Ignacio Lagoon, off Mexico's northwest Baja California peninsula, where gray whales breed and nurse their calves each year after migrating thousands of miles from Canada and Alaska.

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Honey the reindeer keeps a close eye on her newly born calf at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station in Fairbanks, Alaska on April 1, 2010. The 17-pound male, whose name will be determined by submitted suggestions, is the first reindeer birth of the year.

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A bumblebee is dusted with pollen as it collects nectar from a flower in one of Kiev's parks on March 31, 2010 during a warm spring sunny day in Ukraine.

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Nuns throw flowers during a procession in a Holy Week procession in Cordoba, Spain, Sunday, April 4, 2010.

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A hummingbird rests on a tree branch as it looks out over some 50 acres of giant tecolote ranunculus flowers at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California March 10, 2010.

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U.S. first lady Michelle Obama plants seedlings with schoolchildren from Bancroft and Hollin Meadows Elementary Schools during the annual Spring Garden Planting event held in the White House Kitchen Garden March 31, 2010 in Washington, DC. Mrs. Obama sponsors the event to teach children the importance of eating healthy foods and to encourage children to spend time outdoors

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Twin four-month-old brown bear cubs play in a public bear park in Bern, Switzerland on April 4, 2010.

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A Kashmiri woman carries mustard flowers on her head at Kakpora village, 28 miles (45 km) south of Srinagar, India, Friday, April 2, 2010.

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Workers carry beach chairs along the beach of St. Peter-Ording at the North Sea, northern Germany, as temperatures reached ten degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. Tourist centers set up approximately 300.000 beach chairs along Germany's coastlines of the North Sea and Baltic Sea with the beginning of this year's tourist season.

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Sandhill cranes crowd sandbars in the Platte River near Gibbon, Nebraska, where they will spend the night, Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The cranes, on their annual migration north, stop over along the Platte River in central Nebraska for rest and food.

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A female Osprey and one of her three chicks are seen against the backdrop of the NASA logo on the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Saturday, April 3, 2010, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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A couple walks through the Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch in Carlsbad, California on March 29, 2010.

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A family looks at pictures on their camera as they stand under cherry blossoms in full bloom in Tokyo, Japan on April 4, 2010.

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Melissa, a lamb born on March 21, one of several baby animals the public can meet at Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, Massachusetts, is photographed on Saturday, April 3rd.