Bird On A Wire

Click for larger view. You can see similarly composed pics of a female cardinal and female downy woodpecker here.

Snow Makes Everyone More Friendly

I've talked about how skittish the cardinals are in the yard. Something flipped their switch, and we had four males and four females all around the patio looking for good eats. I have five seed feeders and one suet feeder hanging from the eaves. One cardinal found himself so brave as to hop onto a feeder rather than hang out down below and eat what the finches have dropped.

These photos were taken on Friday afternoon during the beginning of the storm. That's why you can still see some grass in the background. That has since been covered by a foot and a half of the purdy white stuff.

We also had about an inch more of snow last night. The interesting thing about a blanket of snow is that it becomes a blueprint for things that go bump in the night. There were deer footprints in the driveway and mouse tracks on the sidewalk.

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Under The Weather

I'm supposed to meet friends from California in NYC this weekend. I haven't seen them in two years and I am really looking forward to it. The last time I saw them was at my going away party and I didn't get to see them last summer when I was out there on business. I miss them and my life there.

Problem: The weather forecasters are predicting 12"-18" of snow tonight. This is an issue since I have to drive 1.5 hours to catch the train in Poughkeepsie to Grand Central. Doing it this way means a round-trip train fare of $25 vs $100 on Amtrak out of Albany/Rensselaer.

The plan was for me to get into the city tomorrow afternoon, shoot over to TKTS and get a ticket to Company so I can join them (they already have their tix), check into the hotel, then meet up with them. I was looking forward to seeing the St. Patrick's Day Parade and joining in on a GLBT protest but I won't make it down early enough.

That's all on hold. I haven't even reserved a hotel room yet since I'd have to cancel within the 24 hr period and lose all my money. Friends are staying at the W but have a tiny room with two double beds so I can't crash with them.

So, if the snow isn't too bad or has been cleared early tomorrow morning, I'll have to make the decision to go and then start looking to book a room. The storm may work in my favor since JetBlue canceled a ton of flights so maybe there will be lots of room cancellations and I can sneak in at a great rate at the last minute. We'll see.

The birds must know a storm is coming...the cardinals are on the patio eating like pigs and they never come this close to the house. My signal of spring is never the robins, rather the song of the red-winged blackbirds. We've had quite a few singing like crazy this week in the warm weather. Spring may not be here yet, but it's close.
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Cardinal

Can you see her? Female cardinals are not nearly as bright as their male counterparts. She is more grayish brown but has the same orangy yellow beak. While friends of mine have said the cardinals come right up to their windows, we have a pair that are very skittish and this is as close as they get...about 20 feet from the back of the house.

She is sitting on one of the shrubs that I've mentioned are a favorite target of the deer. These are still recovering from a huge deer munchfest from two years ago.

We have five feeders with seed and one with suet that I have hanging from the eaves so that they are just on the other side of the windows in the sitting room. My mom was always a bird watcher so this is a passive activity that she can enjoy.
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