Nature Notes: Mixed Bag yet Again

Thursday morning before the rain came, I went on a walk around Shelley Lake with a friend who was visiting.

The geese were still on their winter side of the lake where they hunt for food in the grasses. The gulls were still on the other side of the lake.

The gulls were particularly active and provided me with a lot of photo ops.

I like to photograph the gulls this time of the year because I know they will leave this lake in the spring. They go somewhere else to breed, and don't return until the late fall.

The cormorants are another bird that I see at the lake in the fall and winter but they leave sometime in the spring or summer.

In some ways it was easier to photograph the gulls with the sun filtered through the clouds.

The male mallards were greatly out numbering the few females.

The shot below isn't very good but it's the only time I've ever seen deer in the woods near the lake. I would have missed them but Peggy said, do you see the deer. I said no and she finally helped me spot them through the trees and I got some shots. None were very good but still fun to get them at all.

The male house finch spread its wings out on my deck to show off its markings.

I think the males are very beautiful little birds. The females are rather drab in comparison. The shot above and below are of the same male house finch.

The male rufous-sided towhee was enjoying a bath below.

The female rufous-sided towhee had staked out the larger bath.

I think the expression on the female towhee's face below is priceless.

I think the bird below is a crow. I'm basing that guess on its call as well as its size.

Although my daffodils and lenten rose had already had some ups and downs with warm then cold weather, I took the shot below on Sunday because I had a feeling the forecast for a wintry mix that night would do some more damage.

I was right although I think the daffodils look very pretty in the ice and snow, even if they are bowed down.

Although it didn't amount to much, I'm glad we got at least a little snow this winter as I've missed it.

The part of my garden where these flowers are planted used to be my corn rows. I don't have a big vegetable garden like I used to but I still think of them as my corn rows minus the corn. Then again, who knows, maybe I'll get energetic this summer and plant corn again.

I planted the bulbs when I still planted corn in the summer. The flowers are mostly early spring and the corn seeds were planted in front of them. By the time the corn was high the daffodils were done blooming.

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