We were in the midst of a warm spell, which always comes as a welcome surprise this time of year. I needed a morning walk before singing with the choir Saturday afternoon in a memorial service for a beloved choir member. It was cloudy but not too windy, and warm enough for turtles to emerge.
I saw only a few of the usual suspects, but everybody was singing, like this Song Sparrow.
Red-winged Blackbirds have been about for over a month now, but they still fulfill their purpose as official spring arrivals.
I was delighted to see a Brown Creeper. I never tire of seeing this bird.
And there were a couple White-tailed Deer, one of which posed nicely
Then on Sunday morning, with a promise of sunshine and continued warmth, I went out again, although it was extremely windy and passerines were simply not available. But I hedged my bets, so to speak, and after walking the trail without seeing much of anything, I decided to sit on the picnic table bench by the water and wait a few minutes to see what might occur. After a moment or two, I saw my first Turkey Vulture of the season, albeit at a distance.
A moment or two later, a male Belted Kingfisher dropped in and back out again.
I had checked the wind direction on my cell phone weather app and it seemed that I had a good chance to see some Sandhill Cranes. Sure enough, a group of eight Sandhills flew over, in silence, but low enough for the camera to record them.
I am still recuperating from the sudden loss of my internet connection which occurred yesterday afternoon. After figuring out that my router had died, I was lucky enough to call tech support and visit a store to exchange the dead device for a new one. Everything is working fine again, but it was just such an exhausting spell of adrenaline, I never got around to eating anything substantial until dinner. But what a lovely meal it was.
Our brief flirtation with spring weather is over and we are anticipating stormy weather as the temperature drops. I did go out for a brisk walk this morning to clear my head for attending to some boring-but-important tasks ranging from vacuuming to passport renewal… To be continued.
That does look like a meal worth waiting for.
I felt lucky to have all my choices made over the past week in the fridge to put on my plate.
Lisa has the format for replying changed. I tried twice yesterday and no message was sent. Maybe I just did it wrong. Love seeing the Sandhills and nice shots of the Kingfisher. Your plate of food las interesting, I guess.
Hang in through out the rain.
Hi Bob! I don’t know if the format for posting a comment has changed on your end but I found it at times a bit confusing within the WordPress software maybe depending on the device I was using… I do know that often enough earlier some of your messages came up as an unknown sender…
But I’m glad you got through!
I saw more Sandhills while I was driving, but now that the winds are blowing in the opposite direction I suspect their migration has been put on hold.
We had quite a little hail event earlier this evening. See what happens. Hang in there yourself.
Enjoyed your walk at the Portage with the turtles and all the new arrivals! So nice to see the birds returning. That warm front hit Maine yesterday and BAM! Red winged blackbirds and Grackles appeared. I saw my first TVs recently too but neglected to record them in my notebook. The temperature hit 66 degrees here yesterday, which is unheard of. I hope the thunderstorms and tornado outbreaks don’t affect you!
Thanks, Ann! We had some very noisy maybe nickel-sized hail for a while but otherwise the storms weren’t too bad for us. I think we were in the sixties too before the temperature dropped and now we’re back to seesawing between winter and spring. I had my first Grackle yesterday morning. I didn’t get to take a walk today.
After years of cursing the changes in the weather due to climate change, I confess I’ve sort of almost come to expect them…