A Morning at Middle Creek

My parents came up for the weekend on Saturday, and Dad and I took the opportunity to run up to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for sunrise on Sunday morning.


While the large flocks of snow geese and tundra swans have moved on, a few individual geese were still to be found. A group of three were foraging within a few yards of the road for most of the morning. This is one of the three. Two of the three were noticeably holding a wing at an unnatural angle; they will not be making the migration this year.


Dad and I were exchanging lenses and equipment, and I am not 100% sure if he or I took this picture of a flying cormorant. I think it was Dad, but I enjoy the cormorant's unique silhouette, and since I took the liberty of cropping and otherwise adjusting the photo, I am posting it here :)


And lastly, the song of the red-winged blackbird could be heard throughout the morning. Many were perched at various intervals along the wire fencing used in the park. Here, a blackbird breaks into his call.

What I Did Last Weekend

I found some colts foot, just unfurling, in Mont Alto State Park. We were there for our friend's Pennsylvania wedding reception and I wasn't really expecting to find any spring flowers. But I did manage to catch a few colts foot (colts feet?), which are usually the first ones out.

Then, on Sunday, my Aunt & Uncle (Salty) came for a visit. Salty explains the situation and history of the bridge very well in his latest post, but I thought you might appreciate a "behind-the-scenes" picture of his totally incredible shot of the bridge.


And then, the storm hit and we got hail. Probably the largest hail I have seen since I was a small girl, but we were fortunate as just a few miles north of us golf ball sized hail stones were reported.

We were very lucky in that we only received high winds and heavy rain, many nearby areas suffered damage and it was later confirmed that a tornado touched down in the northern part of the county. And all this, in March!