Countdown to Spring 2015

[In_The_Wind]

http://days.to/spring/2015

[antiquie]

1. Apparently, SoCal is on a different timeline...

Today Active Advisory: High Wind Warning
High 87 | Low 58 °F
Pressure 29.97 in
Visibility 10.0 miles
Dew Point 24 °F
Humidity 17%
Rainfall 0.00 in

[In_The_Wind]

2. The snow is so deep my pond is missing and it's up to the dog's belly.

Poughkeepsie, NY
Elevation: 135ft
Data as of: 9:50 AM 2/11/2015
Current Conditions
Temperature: 19.2°F Pressure: 30.13"
Average Wind: 7mph N Sunrise: 6:56 AM
Humidity: 72% Sunset: 5:23 PM
Dew Point: 12°F Moonphase: 53

Wind Chill: 11°F Monthly Rain: 0.09"

So Far Today
High: 20°F Rain: 0.00" Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Low: 12°F Gusts: 21mph NNE

[Aristus]

3. Love Vivaldi...

[In_The_Wind]

7. How about something different ...

[livetohike]

4. Beautiful! It cannot get here fast enough. The driveway has 2" thick ice on it. If it wasn't so

bumpy, one could ice skate on it.

[In_The_Wind]

5. Our driveway is clear thanks to two back-to-back sunny days. Next week might be warmer.

Meanwhile, I've refused to go to work for the past three weeks. It's too cold (below zero wind chill) plus I cannot afford to hit a patch of ice the wrong way. :fingerscrossed: There'll be plenty of work for me soon enough.

[HereSince1628]

6. Days until spring? ~12 days or so until pitchers and catchers start showing up

[In_The_Wind]

8. Practice season should be a welcome change for some.

[HereSince1628]

9. If you are an fan of outdoor sports in Chicagoland the preseasons

are very often the BEST part of the sports year.

I love the start of the first inning of the opening game, but it's my experience that after that I could be looking to 'next year'.

Last year I think I lasted until mid to late May, when the Cubs were already 13 games back

[In_The_Wind]

10. I'm not much of a sports fan. But I do understand.

I'm more of a birdwatcher. Any season I can watch migration and mating flights is my favorite.

[HereSince1628]

11. I get that...I saw a pair of Swans here In s. WI on a bit of open water last week

Last week I also saw a mob of well over 60 turkeys out in corn stubble. I don't remember ever seeing that kind of number at one time

The return of the buzzards and sandhill cranes is always a good sign spring has come to the country-side, I think we are maybe still a month away from them

This winter's curiosity have been a complete lack of snow buntings and the presence of a Flicker that's been pecking at the siding for a week or so...I've had Downy's and even chickadees do that sometimes throughout winter but I don't remember seeing a Flicker in WI in early Feb. I think of them as being ant-eaters of the summer

[In_The_Wind]

12. One of the male North American Goldfinches at my feeder was starting to moult toward yellow.

It's too early for that.

It's great seeing the swans near the Hudson River.

I haven't seen any buzzards lately.

[HereSince1628]

13. So far the crows seem to dominate road kills...which are starting to include skunks

I've never noticed swans as early migrants. Do the do that in the Hudson valley with regularity?

[In_The_Wind]

14. Swans live in the Hudson Valley year round.

I've never seen any bird picking over the carcass of a skunk.

Three Raven visit my neighbor's backyard just after dawn each morning to see what's been thrown out for them. An occasional murder of Crows flock the trees.

The Starlings have returned to bathe in the heated birdbath.

[HereSince1628]

15. I had no idea swans could be winter residents so far north.

Yes, the local crows will pick at skunk remains...

In the 7 acre wood I once owned the crows regularly settled in to sleep every night in winter. Maybe a hundred of them in 'the rookery'. It was truly raucous as the light of winter afternoons went dark.

I think they mostly lived through the winter on road killed deer. But as spring approached and the not so truly hibernating critters started to move under the wheels on the road they fed on skunks and squirrels, an occasional cat, a lost chicken etc.

[In_The_Wind]

17. They've been wintering up the Rondout Creek just south of Kingston.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/muteswanreport.pdf





I've been watching them for 30 years.

[HereSince1628]

20. I saw them again today...temps are headed down ice is increasing

Also today I saw about 50 ducks flying...just in silhouette against a gray sky so I'm not sure if they werethe popcorn fed overwintering mallards or something else....

[sarge43]

19. Apparently, the boys didn't get the memo

The Goldfinches here, called Swamp Canaries in New England, are putting on their hot date tonight rags.

[PasadenaTrudy]

16. God, it feels like summer here

I was out at 5:30 this evening and it was 80 degrees...yuck.

[In_The_Wind]

18. It's a chilly 8 degrees now.