On Wednesday afternoon, my son came home from school asking if I’d ever heard of a game called Go. Thanks to my obsession with Animal Crossing on my phone for a few years, I could say yes. Although I had no idea how to play or anything about it other than it being an item I could get for pretend animals in my game.
I’m taking the long way around to say my walk in Wednesday’s beautiful weather was delayed. First, my son created a Go game board and then, we played. I lost. Badly.
The Geese
However, I still took my walk. I just left the house much later than planned. Wednesdays are odd days in that school gets out early so my whole day usually ends up a bit off anyway. Tonight (Saturday) the ground is covered with snow and there’s a feels like 5 degrees temperature.
Just 3 days ago, it was more of a feels like 50 degree temperature. And sunny. I ventured off to my favorite walking park. It’d been a while as we’d had snow and rain and it’s often slow to dry over there. The parking lot still had the large puddles and I passed a part of the park where a large grassy area remained flooded. There I saw an usual sight. I’ve never seen Canada geese at this particular park. Yet, Here they were flying in to enjoy the water. A few robins joined them.
I watched them for quite a while. The park was busy since super nice February days are relatively rare. The gentleman in the picture below appears closer to me than he is. The sidewalk to get over to that side is quite long.
I could have watched the geese for longer but I was on a time crunch (dinner time approaching fast). One last look.
Gulls
Yet another bird I’d never seen at this park. A group of gulls flying in the sky on the west side of the park. Couldn’t get the whole group in a decent photo but captured a few single gulls in flight.
I’ve often heard when you spot a gull, it means snow is on the way. Not sure if that’s just a local thing but it did get colder and then, snow today. Personally, I’ve noticed whenever the temperatures get unusually warm, snow tends to follow. Usually not this much cold air with it.
Other Birds Spotted This Week
Around the backyard, all the birds were happy that I finally got around to refilling the feeders on Friday morning. The squirrels were as well. I’ve been throwing extra seed out on the deck for our resident robin and the blue jays that like to visit. The tufted titmouse also seems to prefer coming up to the deck for seed.
The cardinals and house finches stick mostly to the feeders as do the chickadees though I’ve seen the first two visit the deck. The nuthatch also prefers the feeders. He takes no flack from the sparrows and is fun to watch when he spreads his wings to make them back off. The downy woodpeckers wait while I clap my hands at the greedy squirrels. Most the other birds also scatter with the squirrels but the downy woodpeckers wait patiently.
The white throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos both make appearances on the deck and under all the bird feeders along with our mourning doves. The Carolina wrens and red-bellied woodpeckers also made appearances at the feeders.
My husband spotted the Cooper’s hawk on Tuesday but it was in the far neighbor’s tree and I only saw it fly over the yard.
What birds did you spot this week?
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Joining in with The Bird D’Pot hosted by Anni at I’d Rather B Birdin’.
I’ve never heard that gulls means snow. But we have so many gulls around here every day just close to the coast. It’s interesting how you’ve noticed the pecking order around the feeders. Our Nuthatches are the same in fending off other birds. Not many would argue with a Nuthatch dagger like bill.
Maybe the thing with the gulls is just for those of us who are landlocked? It is snowing again today though. Hope your week is off to a great start!
If that’s the case, we’d be 1000s of feet under snow…year ’round. But, hey, I DO like your photos of them.
Thanks so much for having us at I’d Rather B Birdin’ share in your area of the bird kingdom.
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Thank you! I was just looking into it *very* briefly and I guess there’s something in the almanacs about when they fly inland to expect a storm. Seems pretty straightforward, probably just got changed to snow around here. Happy New Week!
Our greatest backyard bird treats this week were Red-bellied Woodpecker several times and a lone Common Redpoll just once.
David M Gascoigne recently posted…Random Memories of Australia – Part 5
Those sound like fun birds (I know the red-bellied woodpeckers are fun) to watch! We’re getting a serious cold snap bringing more birds to our yard, though I can’t keep up with the bird seed demand of the past two days. Already need to get more.