@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 aboutSandy 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 
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.
I guess this is more usually a late winter/early spring thing? The article suggests it happens every year on Lake Erie. https://www.timesunion.com/news/us/article/Dozens-rescued-after-being-trapped-on-Lake-Erie-13676094.php#photo-17047974.
Daylight saving time arrived… but so did more snow… The snowbanks are quite high and I miss the radio antenna that allowed you to put a pink styrofoam ball on it to announce your presence at corners.
Rite of winter… here snowmachine deaths continue to mount as for most of the state its been the fourth snowiest winter since records were started.
We will find the Christmas lights in April but they will be frozen till May.
We do have migratory sandhill cranes that love farmers fields on ridgetops. Not here yet.
Almost all homes still have Chritstmas decorations up… With three to ten feet of snow or sort of snow ( its frozen solid and as slippery as get out) the Dead Wreath Society is doing well.
I just rediscovered a bent-over, sad little cholla that had been planted last summer. finally uncovered where enough sun and warmth melted the snow. My cheer upon seeing it was immediately shadowed by the thought, “Uh, oh, now where is the OTHER one that was planted at the same time?” Jackrabbits will chomp cacti, and deer might get desperate. I hope the other one is under the still-white hillock nearby.
No early spring here; just a never ending winter. With DST came six inches of snow and winds gusting to 45+. Power went out this morning (just as I was preheating my oven to bake bread) and like kayamedic, crazy high snowbanks because temps have been so cold. Maybe it will melt by May, but doubt if Lake Superior will.
@Rookie said:
No early spring here; just a never ending winter. With DST came six inches of snow and winds gusting to 45+. Power went out this morning (just as I was preheating my oven to bake bread) and like kayamedic, crazy high snowbanks because temps have been so cold. Maybe it will melt by May, but doubt if Lake Superior will.
Us too . Its still snowing.
@kayamedic said:
@Rookie said:
No early spring here; just a never ending winter. With DST came six inches of snow and winds gusting to 45+. Power went out this morning (just as I was preheating my oven to bake bread) and like kayamedic, crazy high snowbanks because temps have been so cold. Maybe it will melt by May, but doubt if Lake Superior will.Us too . Its still snowing.
Am guessing your temps have been 15-20 degrees below normal like ours.
Time to make some snow paint and brighten up the monochromatic landscape.
Edited to add it’s snowing again. I was so hoping for the simple pleasure of seeing no new snow on the driveway tomorrow morning. Bah humbug.
Nuther day— nuther few inches of snow. Picture from a couple of weeks ago. Might even be more now as we are getting a couple inches almost everyday.
All the white is very fresh and clean, but beneath the fresh white lies layers of ______________. We have 3 dogs, I leave it to you to fill in the blank.
https://d3s3k13islrvw7.cloudfront.net/original/2X/c/c86f0e40227416f20938db4133df8595af4de585.jpeg “”)
Well, darnit, winter barged back in. It left only a skiff of snow last night this time instead of a boatload. We keep getting persistent waves of wet storms.
This weather is making me downright edgy. I might as well go sit-on-top a bed of snails or maybe slap my scull.
Canoe fathom why?
While down heah, we have 3 days off from rain. But, it will be back for the weekend.
Paris perched upon the berg,
roared her electrostatic air,
“Sound the charge, let the hounds debarge,
I’m an icebreaker on a tear!”
Lake Erie apparently opened up this weekend. A few dozen fisherman had to be rescued from the flow.
