Nature Notes: February 1 to 7 and looking back

This week I thought I'd post shots from the first seven days of February as well as pulling a few archive ones.

The beginning of February has been mild like most of the winter.

The pansy below was beaten up by rain but it looks like a little pot of gold to me.

It is amazing how many buds and blooms there are for this time of the year.

For comparison I'm including a few snow shots from early March in years gone by. The little chickadee below was eating some seeds I put on the deck wall ledge.

I keep remembering that some years when there were too many blooms at the end of February, they were covered by snow in early March.

I don't think we've ever had spring get ahead of itself by blooming in early February.

The first 3 shots were from February 1, 2012. The snow shots were a look back to March 2, 2009. The shots below were taken from February 2 to February 7, 2012.

The brown thrasher above was pushing her chest out so far that when her head bent down, her beak was hidden in the chest thrust.

The rufous-sided towhee above was splashing up a storm and the brown thrasher below was cleaning under her wing.

I love the look on the rufous-sided towhee's face below.

The female cardinals seem to have staked out this bush for their special place.

I love the posture of the squirrel below.

My neighbor's Japanese Magnolia is busting into bloom. The sixth shot in this post shows that same tree in the snow back in March of 2009.

It's not that it's been warm all winter this year, but when it rains it has stayed above freezing. When the temperatures dip back down below freezing it has been dry.

Snow can protect some plants but that mostly works when they have tiny buds and are just emerging.

The mockingbird below was standing in the driveway staring at me until I got in the car and started it up.

One reason I keep talking about snow is at one level I want a pretty snow. This is the first winter in a long time when we haven't had any at all. I'm also aware though that with everything growing like crazy due to a mild winter, it's probably not going to be great if we have a hard blast of winter.

The male cardinal above has staked out a sapling for a good perch.

It was amazing how many birds flocked to the tree below. They almost look like insects. There were at least three times as many as I got into the shot.

I think the buds on the tree below almost look like seeds in that lighting.

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