A sign of spring...maybe...

No, this IS NOT a sign of spring!

Amazing. Last Sunday it was 45 degrees, and the snow was melting. You could even SEE the grass! What kind of sick joke is this? As you can tell, we have a little snow...again. We live on the west side of Cleveland because it doesn't snow much here...well, at one point in time it didn't.

So, you're wondering about the first sign of spring. It's not the Robins, they've been in and out all winter. They sort of fly south for the winter, about two or three blocks south. You don't want to tire yourself out. It could be the Song Sparrow singing, or the Tufted Titmouse singing, but no...

In this shot by Doodles the spy, you can see how much snow has fallen this week...and it's still snowing! Argh.

Here's the first sign of spring!
No, not the Starling, the Red-winged Blackbird!
They look a little angry. Red should have checked the weather report before flying back.
I'm surprised his flight wasn't canceled.

The White-throated Sparrows are still here.
I could here him yelling at the House Sparrows "Hey, I was here first!"

The sleepy Mourning Dove was saying to the confused Titmouse "My names not Peter!"
It's rough having noisy neighbors...

This little Song Sparrow has been roosting in the privacy fence on the side of our back yard and house.

I can hear him singing out there now!

The usual suspects at the feeder. Pigs.

The Northern Cardinals and the others love the evergreens we planted out front.

It's a great place to watch the world go by and escape the snow.

Here's our farsighted American Tree Sparrow. "I know there's a seed in here somewhere!"

He really needs to get new contacts.

I better get back to my full time job...filling the feeders for the feathered pigs! See ya!

Meanwhile...back at the park...

Who's my buddy?

We went off trail for part of our walk and discovered a bounty of brave Black-capped Chickadees

willing to get real close and see if we had anything for them.

Bob hid in the Doodles coat pocket, he knows the wrath of the Chickadee!

If you read my post of a few days ago, "Birding with Bob", you will remember I mentioned our bird walk. Surprise, surprise! Even with Bob tagging along, we saw a few birds! It was a warm and bright afternoon for a change, almost a shock to the system.

Since we are back in snow storm mode today, I thought I would post a few of the photos from the weekend....without Bob.

*Please note the color of the sky in the background of some of these shots...we won't see that again for a few weeks...ahhh, memories...

Fast food for the Chickadee!

I'm not positive, but doesn't he resemble Aldo Leopold?

Lesson #1- This is a Downy Woodpecker, short bill, black spots on the tail (generally all that I see), maybe Robert Jr.

Lesson #2- This is a Hairy Woodpecker, LONG bill, sparkly white booty.
And that's the easy way to tell them apart. So there. Lesson over.

Lesson #3- Male has a red spot on the back of his head, female has her mouth open.

Guess why the male has the red spot...

yep, getting hit by the female for making wise cracks like this. Ow.

Oooh, a Red-bellied Woodpecker showing it's red belly!

Woodpeckers are for people that don't have their own...

Anyway...

We spotted this Red-tailed Hawk carrying nesting material. Oboy! Spring is near!

And here's the nest in the top of a very tall pine tree.

Thanks to Penny O'Connor from WCAS for showing us where it was!

There were a whole lot of White-breasted Nuthatches doing the Nuthatch thing

...you know...not sitting in one place for any longer than a millisecond!

This one was banded, but I couldn't catch it in one place long enough to read the number... I need to take a speed reading course.

I could have sworn I heard K.C. and the Sunshine Band singing "Shake your booty" in the background...

Where my seed goes...

"Are you lookin' at me? Are you lookin' at me? You must be lookin at me, I'm the only one here!"*

*Say that with your best Robert DeNiro voice...

I owe an apology to the @##@*&%#@! Starlings that attack my feeders on occasion, that occasion being most every day lately. We were going through seed like it was water, fill them in the morning...completely empty by the time I got home...what the...! Of course I blamed the Starlings...the #@&*#*@! Starlings.

Then I discovered the truth. Sunday morning as we prepared for our walkies to the park to see some REAL birds...I saw him! Sitting there on the feeder, outside our dining room window, with his massive bulk causing the feeder to sway to and fro. Looking at me. Laughing. I heard him. That evil cackle. You've heard it before. Unnerving.

Do you know what it's like to have an American Crow laughing in your face, feeling helpless to do anything but watch...as the feeder is quickly depleted of lovely, energy packed, delicious black oil sunflower at you-know-how-much per pound! I watched in horror. I also took a few photos for evidence. I'll remember you! Beware the wrath of Loopy! You, you, you big piggy bird you!

"I look mahvelous!"*

*Do Billy Crystal now.

"Your seed is crap and I spit it at you...and your father is a hamster!"*
*Said with your best Monty Python voice.

"I shall rummage through and see if I shall find a seed worthy of my particular palate!"*

*Said in the voice of the Queen. God save the Queen.

"Yes, this single seed, by royal decree, shall be worthy of my regal beak!" *

*Repeat voice of the Queen. God save the Queen.

The Further Adventures of "Birding with Bob!"

Bob thought that picture looked like cousin Ernie.

Me and the Doodles didn't think so.

Warm temps...sunshine...birds singing...let's get out for a walk in the park! Then there's Bob. "I wanna go too!" Jeez his voice is annoying, sort of like Chip and Dale but whinier. Fine. Let's ALL go to Rocky River Reservation for a nice bird walk and see what's out to be seen!

In between keeping track of the little rodent, and I mean that in a nice way, we did manage to see a few birds. I'll blog about them later, right now Bob wants his photos up and he wants them up NOW! You know chipmunks...very impatient.

This is the very first photo Bob took after he swiped the Doodles new camera.

Believe it or not, it's a White-breasted Nuthatch...really...I saw it too...

Okay Bob, what does the sign say?

And now he knows why.
A few birdies hopping around at the top created a small avalanche, enough to send the wise guy tumbling!

You know that saying, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you?",

well, Bobby boy was hungry and bit the wooden hand that fed him and chipped a tooth...these kids...