Photo Gallery Saturday is a second Saturday monthly photo series by Long Beach Post staff that aims to highlight unique scenes across the city. To contact us, email Visuals Editor Thomas R. Cordova at [email protected].

There has rarely been a better time for spring’s arrival. It’s the season of hope and joy, of new beginnings, of starting over. It has been a dreary, sad, lonely year, but the disease that caused so much misery is thawing now and people are beginning to cautiously, slowly, re-awaken. Birds are singing a chirpier tune, flowers are exploding in colors long absent.

The 19th-century writer Harriet Ann Jacobs noted that “when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” And Lady Bird Johnson, who made the beautification of the urban blight of roads and freeways her project as First Lady, said “where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

Long Beach Post photographers set out to capture the dawn of 2021’s new spring, finding its spirit in birds, blossoms and other trappings of the season when nature shows and shares its wonders, and life begins all over again.

A great white egret and a pair of ducks stand on a branch a couple yards above the water along the El Dorado Nature Trail in East Long Beach, Sunday, March 7, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
After a downpour, a jogger runs along Ocean Blvd as the rain clouds move out of the city in Long Beach Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
A bee flies from flower to flower in the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
Flowers soak up the sun’s warmth along Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach Thursdasy, February 18, 2021.Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
A bird next to another bathes inside a small pond at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
Ducks dive in search of food in the water along the El Dorado Nature Trail in East Long Beach, Sunday, March 7, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
A rainbow appears over the Colorado Lagoon as storm clouds linger after rainfall in Long Beach Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
A family walks along the El Dorado Nature Trail in East Long Beach, Sunday, March 7, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
A Southwest airplane prepares for landing at Long Beach airport as it moves through a fading rainbow after rainfall in Long Beach Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.
A bird flies past a perched bird on the edge of a small pond at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A group of hikers walks along the El Dorado Nature Trail in East Long Beach, Sunday, March 7, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
A bird emerges from the water away from two other birds at a pond at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A hummingbird reaches for nectar from a flower at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A hiker passes by Black-Eyed Susan flowers along the El Dorado Nature Trail in East Long Beach, Sunday, March 7, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
A great blue heron perched near Queensway Bay in Downtown Long Beach, Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
A mosaic sculpture reflects portions of a bush of flowers at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
An orange wooden chair rests along a fence surrounded by plants at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A great blue heron perched near Queensway Bay in Downtown Long Beach, Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Brandon Richardson.
A blooming flower tree stands tall at Admiral Kidd Park in West Long Beach on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A blooming flower collides with the clouds at Admiral Kidd Park in West Long Beach on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A variety of plant species cover at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A small bunch of pink flowers hover beside an orange chair as light rain falls upon the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
Sunlights peaks through the clouds and glimmers upon plants around a pond at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A group of flowers begin to bloom at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
Artist Trace Fukuhara, owner of the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach waters the dirt near an enclave of pink daisies on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
A cloudy sky with sporadic rain overs over white daisies at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.
Bloomed wisteria dangle from a structure at the Pacific Wind Arts Sculpture Garden in Central Long Beach on Thursday, March 11, 2021. Photo by Crystal Niebla.