Blue Jays Cometh

Chautauqua gray, warmer, around 29 degrees, as I sit listening to Weekend Edition on NPR, and Liane Hansen who retires in May.  I don't particularly like her voice or temperament but I have listened to her for a least ten years.  Blue jays have suddenly appeared at the feeder and on the ground (where I spilled some bird seed); they are aggressive birds, and at least ten were hitting the feeder as well as prancing on the ground.  I have only seen one or two this winter until today; there have been a number of crows in the trees as well, so its been a most active morning, with the regulars, black capped chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmouse's, some doves, lots of woodpeckers(downy, hairy and red bellied), and the ubiquitous sparrows.  I also noticed lots of tracks in the what was once virgin snow, so there must have been some deer here at last night as well, as the yard is covered in tracks and they lead up to our bushes, especially the oak leaf hydrangea, which they seem to like.

Evie's making her Italian bread, baked ziti, and green beans, for later today, when we expect the Cassells to stop by on their way home to Hudson.  We haven't seen them since early January when they stopped here on Friday night for dinner.

We are going off to walk the CI soon, as its mild out, with a inch or two having fallen last night, which will make it a beautiful morning to walk in the CI.

Just finished my favorite meal of the week, fried eggs, two strips of bacon, and two slices of home made bread.  I am not sure why this meal is so satisfying but it is, simple, three very different tastes, and perhaps the salt from bacon, which I love.  We did go for a walk at the CI and it was perfect weather for a walk, though it was warm enough that we worked up a sweat and hand to open our jackets.  There are still few people at the CI, a few travellers with their snow mobiles at the Maple Inn, but for the most part, we hardly saw a soul.  Right now, I can hear the snow dripping off the roof, as it's 40 degrees out and the outside is beginning to change, with little snow left on tree branches, just in nooks protected from the sun.  Water moving, hearing it drip or flow, are signs of the coming spring, as the picture below suggests, taken at the CI this morning.

The birds still are going crazy, either from the warmth, or the free food in two feeders.  Sitting here is like being at an aviary airport, as various sizes and breeds of bird fly by the window, either swoop toward the feeder, or down to the feed that's fallen on the ground, then off again, in the same direction they came from, or off to new haunts.