Robin

Although robins are quite common, and I rarely get too excited about them except maybe in the spring (although they are very welcome), over the years, I've noticed in a couple of photographs I've taken of them, that they can seem quite stately. 

They are a welcome sight after our long winter.  I am happy that they are comfortable around human habitation, and, although still a little wary, they often give me a chance to take some nice photos of them.

Snow Day 2017

Having an unexpected day off is nice.



After about two weeks of way above average temperatures in February, I was ready for an early spring--and even hopeful that we'd have no more winter weather.  Last week changed that with overnight temperatures in the single digits.  Although, I knew they were predicting some snow late last night into today, I was hoping to just have a two-hour delay.  That is what I got, but, once I was dressed for work (and not quite ready to go), our school closed.

Being off from work, I decided to finally start sorting through the tons of photos that I've taken.  Since I had been taking pictures, but never getting around to sorting them let alone posting them, I finally pretty much stopped taking pictures (except with my smartphone!).  However, instead of sorting photos, I began taking them again.  With the snow providing a beautiful backdrop, I began snapping picture after picture of the birds that come to the seed I put out for them.

After taking countless pictures, I switched the display from the traditional viewfinder to the digital display screen--that was when I was finally alerted to the fact that there was no memory card in the camera.  I had left it in the computer when transferring my last batch! :(

I will never know if those shots that I thought were so awesome really were.  So, I started again.  I was even able to recapture one shot of a few mourning doves still perched in the same spot in the distant trees.  The rest that I took still have the same mood as those lost forever.

Here are a few of the better ones:

      

 

Despite the snow, spring was in the air.  The trilling calls of the red-winged blackbirds filled the morning air.  Later in the day, I spotted a robin eating the berries from the sumac.  Later, perched outside one of our kitchen windows, the robin, too began singing.

Melting...melting...melting...

I remember, when I was a kid, snow seemed to stay around for most of the winter, over the past two decades or so, that rarely seems to happen.  This year, it did.  I was fine with the snow for a long time, but now I'm thinking spring.  So, when it finally started to melt, I tried to document the process:

....and then... the first robin!

...three more robins...

...and then we got MORE SNOW yesterday for the first day of spring!