The big fluffy flakes of snow are falling, interspersed with breaks in the clouds, even sunshine at times. Typical November day.
I'm taking the day off, since the kids had the day off from school (teacher workshops). I'm beginning to question the wisdom of that choice; everyone, including a friend, is inside playing video games. But I'll have the whole afternoon to get my mandolin, banjo or whatever out and have some "me" time. At least that's the plan.
I was so into making banjo videos yesterday that I completely forgot to mention I saw my first pine grosbeak of the fall! A beautiful male visited the feeder for about twenty minutes, but he did not cooperate for a photo. Then this morning, I heard some shrill whistling calls and saw three evening grosbeaks in a tree! They visited the feeder briefly. The winter birds have arrived, but I still have not seen any snow buntings.
On Saturday The Hermit and I took a drive to a little lake nearby to scout for duck hunting. We saw hundreds of ring necked ducks and bluebills, and three trumpeter swans! Beautiful. I hadn't seen a trumpeter in a while; they are rare but slowly making a comeback. The Hermit went back to the lake yesterday afternoon to hunt; the ducks were there but they were not enticed to come into the decoys. I don't think The Hermit was too disappointed.
9 comments:
Snow! Wow. None here, yet. Rarely do we get it this early, altho a few years back we got a surprise October snowstorm that took out much of the city for quite some time. There were still too many leaves on the trees yet and transformers went out, power lines came down. What a mess it was. I'll be glad to wait a bit yet for snow!
I was working in the garden of all places when it started snowing here. Talk about putting a damper on working outside!
I am jealous that you got to see Trumpeters. They are so beautiful, and I just don't get to see them around here.
Down here in Kansas City a lot of the lakes built in office parks have a pair of swans in them. I wonder if those are trumpeters. I'm told that the swans won't tolerate geese in their lake, so the ground around the lake isn't littered with goose droppings. I don't know how they get the swans to stick around or return each year, but I suppose it is easy food.
Snow!
Dang this dialup, I'm going to have to wait to watch your banjo video. Next time I have laptop on a WIFI network, I'm clicking on it.
Momadness- Sixteen years ago we had the "Halloween Blizzard", which dumped three feet of snow Halloween evening. October is full of surprises.
Barefoot Gardener- I could not work up the whatever it takes to work in the garden today. Hats off to you!
Trumpeters are hard to find. I was lucky.
Pablo- Do their necks curl, or do they hold them straight? If they curl, and the bills are orange, they are mute swans, which are an introduced species, some consider them invasive. I don't think trumpeters would settle in office park ponds, but I could be wrong.
FC- I was thinking of you dial-up bloggers, hoping there would be some way you could view this. Hope you get there soon! And why, in this greatest nation in the world, don't we have access to high speed internet for everyone?
Oh I'm jealous! Although I'm heading up to Minnesota this weekend to visit my father...any snow called for over the weekend? That should make my first trip to that state interesting!
Pine Grosbeak is one bird I really hope to see this year. There,s a chance because we are supposed to have a wnter fich irruption (makes the bird sound like a volcano or something).
OMG! I so remember the Halloween Blizzard! It was probably the first year I didn't trick or treat. I just sat in the yard with snow falling all over everything. I do believe I had a snowball fight with the neighbor kids that night.
catty ax lady- Welcome! I've heard mixed forecasts for this weekend; there might be some snow flurries mixed in there.
Larry- A winter finch irruption may explain why I am seeing these birds so early in the fall/winter!
Barefoot Gardener- The Halloween Blizzard happened just a month or so after I had moved in with The Hermit and my stepson in Stacy (Hermit and I weren't married yet). I was working at a sporting goods store in Roseville, waiting for my call from the DNR. We didn't even have a shovel. I remember walking with the sled almost a mile to the convenience store, buying frozen pizzas and beer. Those were the days...
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