Scattered Seed

It’s been quite a day, this finish to the week. I only worked four days this week, but they were four long, hard days. Today’s pedometer reading says it all. I am ready for the weekend.

The plans are to do some birding (Project Feederwatch for sure), repotting the spring bulbs I just bought, clean up the backyard if it’s not bitter cold, do some reading, and I guess I should fit in some housecleaning. Tonight I will read the blogs, read my book, put my feet up, and probably head to bed early. Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully renewed energy…….

More than any other year, I have been looking forward to this spring. This was the first winter that I have bought several new sweaters at one time, and even turned the furnace up a degree or two on the bitterest-cold nights. If I don’t stay active, my hands soon chill, and I’m reaching for a fleece jacket, or an afghan. My personal thermostat seems to have changed.

Here we are, the first day of spring, and out my window the sky is gray, the wind blows, and snowflakes are dusting the ground like powdered sugar. I saw this coming. Last night the foggy mist settled over the neighborhood, and the forecast showed an expected drop in temperature through the week. If spring was not going to find me right away, I was going to have to bring it home. We stopped at the garden center after dinner, and picked up a planter filled with spring bulbs – tulips and hyacinths. I will find comfort in their blooming while we wait for the warmer weather I long for.

Today was a little holiday for me, so I tried to fit a lot in. This morning I worked around the house and put a corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot for our dinner.

This afternoon was filled with errands and a dentist appointment, but I especially enjoyed my last stop of the day – the Salvation Army. I had not been there in quite awhile, and I wondered what I would find. I picked up a little folk art picture that I liked, and two little tins that I thought were pretty. I have collected a few tins over the years, nothing organized, but I have always liked them and their usefulness. Here is a picture of my purchases, $1.98 total spent.

These are the colors of the landscape out my window today, the same colors I have seen since the last snow melt. I am ready for green, and flowers!   Today was a day to stay indoors, cook and clean, catch up on laundry, and do little projects around the house. A few snowflakes fell, and many birds came to my feeders. I saw a junco, redwing blackbirds, grackles, mourning doves, blue jays, chickadees, house finches, goldfinches, house sparrows, a downy woodpecker, a white-breasted nuthatch, numerous starlings, brown-headed cowbirds, and robins.   They are full of song, and antics, and activity…..they must be thinking along the same lines as I am……. Come, Spring!

We headed out at 9:30 this morning, west on Route 17. Our destination was Angelica, the object was pancakes. This was the trip we tried to make a couple of weekends ago, but the weather got nasty. Today it was overcast, then sunny, and back and forth. Finding a detour in the road to The Maple Tree Inn, we had to do some back-tracking, then redirecting ourselves a few times. Our Google map was not quite accurate, and the road atlas wasn’t all that helpful. Finally, about lunchtime, we arrived at the Inn, well-known for its pancakes and maple syrup made on site. It was noticeable from a distance by all the cars by the side of the road. The parking lot was almost full, but we found a spot, then joined the line of twenty or more people overflowing the entrance. Soon we were both ordering the buckwheat pancakes (of course), mine with ham slices, Dad’s with ham and eggs. The pancakes were unlimited, but I only ate two, with two cups of hot tea. I have to be good with my portion control! Dad had several, we decided they were good, but he can make better.

Back on the road, we headed out to find a gas station. Gas was selling for 3.42 today. Since we were close, we decided to drive up to Letchworth to do some birding at the state park. Only one entrance was open, and the drives were limited, so we didn’t see much – a few cedar waxwings, crows and robins. Our big find for the day was a kestral that I noticed perched on a road sign out on the highway near Canaseraga. Dad did a U-turn so we could check on it, it flew off after I shot a couple of pictures, then landed on the phone lines where we got a better view.

When I got home from work tonight, I checked out back to see if any birds were about. There was one lone bird in the maple by the deck, difficult to see, because of the afternoon sun’s glare. I was able to poke the tripod out the back door and snap this picture before he flew away.

Daylight savings time….we wanted to get out for the day. Took a ride down towards Wellsboro, to Ives Run Recreation Area, one my favorite birding spots. Saw this guy on the side of the road, scratching his neck on the bale of hay. I thought his markings quite odd…..maybe cows come like this?

As far as birds go, we did see a bald eagle high overhead at Ives Run, Canada geese, robins, starling, juncos, ring-billed gulls, a song sparrow, a crow, a grackle, a blue jay, and a Northern flicker. A good day of birding.

Saturday mornings I sometimes have to force myself out of bed, especially in winter, especially after a really hard week at work. Then I lay there and think that the birds will be coming, and more birds than ever now, with spring on the way. Last weekend during my Feederwatch, I saw more birds than I have since early last fall. So, I convinced myself to get up and get going, put the coffee pot, and NPR on, and watch for the birds to come. It was an icy, glazed-over scene, most of the day, but the birds showed up in record numbers.

It was a nasty weather morning. The rain was turning icy at daybreak when I took my first look outside. I knew there wouldn’t be much to see in the way of birds, so I took note of the one goldfinch in the tree by the deck, and considered myself lucky. Just as I turned away, I caught sight of two birds landing in the willows, two red-winged blackbirds. That is a sure sign of spring, so I made note of their arrival. Suddenly there were four, then out of the sky dropped a sea of blackbirds, mostly red-wings (I counted at least 70), and four or five grackles.

When I walked outside this morning, I was taken away, to another place and time – to Knight Street in Interlaken. Something about the mounds of snow, melting in places, and the air ready to warm, took me to another near-spring day. I remember skipping down the sidewalk in front of our little house. I can hear my mother’s voice. It must have been an awakening for me at that young age, after being cooped up through the winter, because that same feel and memory touches me each year on a day like this.