For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Good morning on this beautiful Saturday! Coffee is ready so just help yourself, Muffin will show you where everything is if this is your first time coming. Right now she is sitting here anxiously waiting for you all. It’s a nice, partly sunny morning with a temperature of 2F (-17C), it dropped quite a bit from yesterday’s high of 37F (3C). It was that northwest wind that did it, bringing in some cooler air once more. Tonight and tomorrow night will be even colder, but then milder air returns for awhile. The long range forecast for March is normal temps through the month.

That should mean a normal spring, maybe even early, for us, and after a late spring the last 4 winters, early would be very nice. But even normal would be nice. It’s looking more and more like Muffin will be right this year in her forecast of an early spring. It was a nice, big full moon this month so I was ready to get a picture of it. Unfortunately the clouds moved in just before the moon was about to rise. Missed my chance. Perhaps next month? I missed last month too. And December. It’s been a very cloudy winter this year which has made it hard to get all the different moon pictures I have been trying to get. Oh well.

Eventually I will get them. If everything was easy, there would be no challenge. If there’s no challenge, there’s no fun. Like trying to get pictures of birds. Some are quite easy, others are harder, some are difficult and some seem to be impossible. However, even the impossible are not really, but it does require just being in the right place at the right time, or you won’t get a picture. Like owls. I don’t have a picture yet, but they are around here, I hear them hooting at night, people tell me they have seen them along the river path where I walk. But I haven’t seen one yet, since I got my camera. Before that I used to see them. Sigh.

Right here in the area where my path is located I have heard barred and great horned owls at night. Just two nights ago I heard the barred owl hooting for quite a while. But taking a good picture at night is not easy. My camera needs light. But perhaps if I tried going out there at night and called them in close, the flash might be enough. Hmm, might be a thought. But it would be a bit hard walking at night. I will admit, with some birds, a little less challenging would be more fun, but that’s the way it goes. Enjoy the winter scenery today! I hope you all have a great Saturday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.

Hi everyone! Here we are with our last bird of the day for this week and this one is the female purple finch. Remember we saw the male yesterday. The female really looks like a brown striped sparrow and is about the same size too. Many times people confuse them with sparrows, especially since they often hang around together during migration time. However, their beak is noticeably larger than sparrows and although they often feed on the ground under feeders with the sparrows, they more readily come onto feeders than will most sparrow species. For small birds the purple finch can consume a large amount of sunflower seeds at one sitting. More birds next week, have a wonderful weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.