Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Fabulous Friday! #18
Good morning to everyone on this beautiful Friday! The sun is shining, it is mild at 46F (8C), hard to believe starting the day at that nice temperature considering the way things have been. Yesterday it was sunny and warm, 64F (18C), just beautiful. There is not much bird activity this morning, seems all but 4 redpolls have gone now and they are being replaced by pine siskins returning from the south.
Both birds are the same size and look very much alike, but pine siskins have no red and they have some yellow in their wings and elsewhere. There was only 6 evening grosbeaks as well, plus the chickadees, nuthatches and only 2 juncos this morning. I guess they have gone now too. I didn’t even see any white-throated sparrows, though I did hear one singing very early this morning. A white-crowned sparrow showed up this morning which is nice.
They breed further north so they don’t stay here long and this year their stay with us will be even shorter. So I hope to get some pictures of it today. My 2 fox sparrows have gone now too, they were not around long either. That happens when it is a late spring, birds have to move along faster than normal. Yesterday I checked the path to the river and made it all the way.
Their is a lot of water in 3 spots, but because the ground is still frozen I was able to walk through the water easily without sinking deep like would normally happen. The water was only 2 inches deep where I walked across and my hiking boots are waterproof to about 4 inches. The water was ice cold and there was much ice and snow in that area still. Actually there is still a lot of snow back along the path. One section was 80 feet long with snow 12 to 14 inches deep.
Another section was shorter but the snow was 18 inches deep still. There was large patches of snow like that all through the trees, though mostly it was bare ground. It will take some time to melt all that remaining snow. Today and tomorrow there is supposed to be a strong south wind and mainly sunny so that will help melt that snow faster. But I would not be surprised to see snow back there for another week yet. The river is very high, about 9 feet higher than normal right now, that is a lot of water.
I will talk more about my walk tomorrow. It was a beautiful walk though and except for those 2 sections of snow which I had to walk through, all others I could walk around easily. Among other birds, I saw 18 double-crested cormorants at the river. They are rather comical birds that look like they have ears, which gives them their name. They naturally stayed on the other side of the river. Sigh. But I took pictures anyway. Spring is here and it is beautiful. Have a wonderful Friday everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (Praying for the people of Ukraine)
©2022 Steve McLeod
Thoughts For Thursday. #18
Good morning on this beautiful sunny day! The birds are busy at the feeders again this morning, but there is a noticeable change from yesterday. The redpolls. Yesterday there were still easily 80 or more of them and this morning there are perhaps a dozen. So the majority seem to have finally headed north. Also the juncos, their numbers have decreased substantially as well as they spread out to nesting territories around the area and further north.
This morning I saw the first chipping sparrow of the season which was so nice. I think they are the smallest sparrow that we have here and can be very friendly as well. Hopefully I can get some pictures of it today. Yesterday I finally got some nice photos of a male red-winged blackbird, I am showing one today. You will likely notice they do not have red wings, they just put that in the name to confuse people.
They do have a red shoulder patch on the wing which is visible when they fly. But it is still not a very large patch of red. And when sitting it usually is not visible. The birds can make it visible while sitting, but normally only if they are alarmed or are trying to attract a mate. Usually, as in 95% of the time, all that is visible is that pale yellow stripe on the wing, perhaps with a bit of red or orange. Oh well. Red-shouldered blackbird would have been more accurate. But that is just me.
So much for my bird rant today. Speaking of chipmunks, I have a new one coming around that is still not brave enough to come over and get a peanut. However, he needs a name. It is a male chipmunk, so, let us do what we did last year which was kind of fun. Everyone can participate in finding a name for our new friend. Just let me know your choice in the comments. I will put all suggestions on pieces of paper, crumple each piece of paper into a little ball, then put all of them into a bowl.
I then let Muffin dig them out of the bowl, the first one she pulls out is the winner and that will be our chipmunks name. So, everyone can participate, but keep the names nice please or they won’t be used. Muffin loves her part and joins in very readily. So far we have Pocket, Skamper, Choco, Coffee and Skitter that have come back from last year. I will give a couple days here and announce the winner on Saturday. The answer to yesterdays question on the number of grosbeaks in the picture is 4! It is already 45F (7C), it is going to be a beautiful day. Thank you for reading, have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (Praying for the people of Ukraine)
©2022 Steve McLeod
