Early Spring

Paris is a smart pup. She’s aware of the law of gross tonnage.

I want to see a camera from Paris’ perspective. I’ll bet Chuck is holding a big fat salmon for all those pictures where she’s posing nicely for the picture . If the photo was higher resolution, you’d see the drool.

Anyone else want to see things from a ParisCAM? She could have her own YouTube channel (if she doesn’t already)

@rival51 said:
There is hope. the resident Sandhill Cranes arrived last week. I heard them earlier and then saw them in a near by field Saturday morning.

Cold for the next 2 -3 days and then looks like March - 40s day 20 - 30s night. Should see buckets & blue lines soon.

Where are you? I saw flock of Sandhill Cranes flying and trilling overhead this morning. I’m in the Four Corners part of CO. The big crane festival in Monte Vista happens next weekend.

Chuck , please do define “warm.”

Paris is the boss.
Would love to see some Sandhill Cranes but central NC doesn’t appeal to them. Did see thirteen Tree Swallows yesterday taking possession of a bunch of gourd-shaped bird houses. Beautiful birds fer sher.

Peach Orchards are blooming here, and freezing weather this week. I was down in Ocala national forest this weekend. Woke to the nosy chatter of Sandhill Cranes each morning. One actually was in the yard with wild turkeys and whitetail deer while we grilled chicken. It would chase the turkeys from where they were feeding to see if there was something it might eat. There is a year round population of Sandhills in Florida.


Well, noticed this morning that the branches of my 9 ft tall burning “bush” are beginning to green up. Looks like it is going to have to get its first haircut before March is out. In upstate NY this early that is about the only hopeful sign I am going to get. The dried stuff I put in the pots out front for Christmas is still frozen in… So it’ll be at least mid-march before the festive sights of the holidays are gone.

@castoff said:

“Boy, am I ever thirsty after that long flight!”

@pikabike I’m in mid-Michigan - just south of Lansing. We don’t get big crowds in the spring - just those who nest here. In the fall though there are several staging areas nearby where we can see them by the hundreds.

@pikabike said:
Chuck , please do define “warm.”

30s

@castoff said:
Peach Orchards are blooming here, and freezing weather this week. I was down in Ocala national forest this weekend. Woke to the nosy chatter of Sandhill Cranes each morning. One actually was in the yard with wild turkeys and whitetail deer while we grilled chicken. It would chase the turkeys from where they were feeding to see if there was something it might eat. There is a year round population of Sandhills in Florida.


“What in Sand Hill?”
Sam said with displacement,
at sign one’s craning neck,
driving through liquor’s replacement,

while the satellite dishes,
flips bird and lid in dumpster dive.
“Ain’t it all so damn peachy,
when bloomin’ winter springs its jive!”

Or how about

Sandy is dandy
But liquor is quicker.

(Apologies to Ogden Nash.)

@castoff said:>……… There is a year round population of Sandhills in Florida.

Maybe but I don’t see them much except the winter months when the migrators are in town. In Rockledge FL they inhabited the RV park I was living in. They kind of thought they lived there and we were to go around them. Kinda like they knew they were protected.

I drove over to Atlanta to pick up a boat today. The fields are green and the sun warm. Very pastoral once you leave the megalopolis.

I was in the Bosque del Apache in central New Mexico in early December 25 years ago when the massive winter migratory bird flocks were gathered there on their way south. Tens of thousands of snow geese and sandhills were gathered in the grassy flats and mown fields along the river valley. When the geese rose up as one, it looked like huge white blankets being tossed in the air. The noise from the strutting mobs of cranes was like the clattering of hundreds of bamboo wind-chimes. Somewhere I have a photo of a huge flock of the cranes standing in a field – a sweep of brown on brown but in the very center a blinding white streak: a solitary whooping crane yearling that had been fostered with the flock as part of the endangered species restoration project.

I also have those somewhere photos. I’m glad my memory still works. Those special times have become feelings .

@pikabike said:
Or how about

Sandy is dandy
But liquor is quicker.

(Apologies to Ogden Nash.)

n Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the
apologies non-
needed g
Nashing teeth
of Winter
's cummings
and goings :wink:

Good one, CWDH!

So much depends
upon

a red-browed
crane

Dazed on Main
beside

the white liquor
store.

and good, too
to like
coloratura through mute
pikabike

Besides, I spent many dazed besides the white liquor store depending on the blindness of strangers in funding my pink elephant spotting. No red-browned cranes, though. Maybe I’ll go petal some peach schnapps, now.

Spring is but an hour away,
though rolled at night she gives false play.
Who solstice on winter’s depraving,
in light nervous tics we’re daylight saving?

I also have those somewhere photos. I’m glad my memory still works.