The cold is creeping in (at 30 mph with 55 mph gusts)

Two perfect days in a row

Bill's family has been working on the pond and Cashlin invited me over for a chocolate and hot dogs break this afternoon.

But it is warmer

The pond appears as an alien landscape and the wind intensely adversarial.
Just interesting.

Warmed by gale force winds all day

The crane stumbled upon me and I almost got a picture before it got away. It is just beyond the branches in the first picture.

Scared the crane again today

I'm just not very good at not scaring the wild animals. Really warm today.

Spring is lurking beneath this?

The pre-spring frenzy

I was going to take a picture of the sunset from the pond last night, and was deleting old pictures as I walked up the berm. Out of habit I shut off the camera and looked up to notice a large crane just noticing me. As it was awkwardly taking off I was awkwardly trying to turn the camera back on and switch it out of menu mode. I almost fell into the pond and got a picture of mostly nothing as he disappeared. (He is hidden behind the branches of the first out of focus tree picture.)
Today the winds were intense again, but calmed by the afternoon.

Building for spring

It is getting warmer outside and seasonal winds are setting up. It was in the upper 60's today and will be above 70 tomorrow. Wind speed is only barely less.

Nicer today

In the upper 50's today. It should be in the upper 60's tomorrow, and the low 70's by Sunday.
Positively spring-like, but that's always a trick - like when you think the gopher is gone, and then you fall into a new gopher hole.

Rain and snow by tomorrow

Sat in my sister's living room and watched a large crane fish in the pond this morning. I didn't bother to try and take a picture because they tend to leave when I pick the camera up. I can't imagine why. I am nice to all animals and don't even eat them any more.

Anyway, this one is a crane, but I can only tell that it isn't a whooping crane (although we have had a pair in the past.)

Rare birds skating on the frozen pond as the sun comes up.

And I'm sure that's interesting, but unfortunately, I mostly don't go outside until long after sunrise.

Not really about any of the above, but almost. Every day Bill and my sister tell me some new and amazing thing that I just missed watching the most interesting birds do (the ducks last night, and the heron eating another fish this morning.) I completely believe the stories because there was a time, when I worked on the pond for hours every day, that I could stay on the bank while exotic birds or other animals were there. I can still picture the covey of quail drinking across the pond from me one morning. The babies were perfect replicas of the adults, and perfect little soldiers about everything. And watching the bittern fish from the back of Bill's boat was otherworldly. It moved very deliberately, like a preying mantis, and I got so close for such long periods of time that I could have drawn pictures of it (if I could draw).
Now I have a great camera and only see black dots as they fly away.

The large bird has been having a fish every morning

But of course I don't have any proof.