Beautiful spring day today. We started off around 40 degrees at the Aerie (cooler down the hill, natch, since cold air sinks) and got up to almost 70 degrees under a cloudless, sunny sky with not a wisp of a breeze blowing. The only clouds that appeared during the day were the contrails of the jets passing high over head.
******
Terry left this morning to go to The Jersey Shore. Not the town just down the highway, but Long Beach Island where a stitching friend has a beach home. About half a dozen ladies will be gathering to walk the boardwalk at Seaside, dine out at one of the year-round joints on the island and generally have a good time talking and stitching.
Me? I've got the cats. They will let me go to bed early and, maybe, won't wake me until 7 AM if I'm lucky. (That's an hour more than Terry gave me this morning. The alarm is on her side of the bed. It was set for 6 AM to go birding on Thursday. She forgot to turn it off, so it rang at 6 AM again today. Grrrr. Would have been okay, except once it goes off, so does Shadow...and Julie...and Chester. And they don't have a snooze button.)
******
Saturday is supposed to be another glorious day so I may head out to the Grand Canyon to see if I can get some pictures of Vultures. I haven't seen a one around the Aerie so far. I'd wonder if the windmills are scaring them away, but I've only seen one as I drive around the Northern/Southern Tier area.
I drove past Hammond and Tioga Lakes today to see if the ice was out. It has melted near the dams and along the northern shore of Hammond Lake which is usually the first to melt. All the gates are still closed however, so you can't even get into the parking areas near the boat launches or the campground areas along the south shore. Even the boat launch area on Tioga Lake and the road to it are still gated. I could walk it but that's close to three miles...one way.
I did see quite a few water fowl on the lakes but they were w-a-a-a-y over on the other side. Too far for good identification. I believe there were Common Mergansers in the mix, however. There were two immature Bald Eagles flying along Route 287 on the northern shore of Hammond Lake. They were right up close and personal making identification easy.
******
Quite a few Robins in the trees around the Aerie at sunset today, but not one plaintive "Peent" of a Woodcock to be heard. They must be chasing the Snow Geese. No Spring Peepers either.
******
Speaking of Saturday...It is the first official day of Spring. Yep. The Vernal Equinox. Twelve hours of sunlight and twelve of dark. Enjoy the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment