Winter Birds

Last week, I was surprised by the group of ducks in this photograph. They were across the street from the elderly apartment building. As soon as I stopped to take the picture, they came toward me, thinking that I had food for them, which I didn’t.

I saw a group of birds once before this and the evening after I took this photo. Both were in the small park down from the Tarrytown train station, but it was not this group of birds. That group were swans (geese?) and they were BIG.

Most of the park’s walkways are not plowed, so they were on the big area that was. (Still, that concrete must have been COLD!) I had to make two of them move to get by. The next night, they were again in the park on the concrete.

This winter has been hard on everything. I have a small bird feeder on my back porch that I try and keep filled for the birds, but the ducks and swans are too large to eat from it. Because it’s on a post and open on all sides, the birds usually use my living room window sill as a place to eat. (I discovered this when I heard their wings bumping the window.)

Below are photographs of the Hudson River over the past two weeks. You can see how iced-over it is; the colder it is, the more ice forms. This week we are supposed to have a day with a high around 45 and it’s supposed to rain. I don’t know if that will help or hurt, as everything freezes again every night.

Cold, Blustery Day

It was a very cold day today, which would have been bad enough but the wind was terrible. It felt as if winter had returned. I had to break out the winter coat again, hat, gloves and all and it was still cold.

I really enjoy walking by Philipsburg Manor. Now I look for the ducks and the swans as I go by. For the past few weeks, there have been no ducks or swans on the mill pond but today, of all days, I spotted two ducks. Then, somewhat further away from them, I spotted a swan, all alone.

The wind was so strong that the Hudson was stirred up with waves.  There were white caps on the waves.

Hopefully, spring will return quickly.

Spring

I wanted to post these pics when I took them, but got busy doing other things.

The thick line of black you see along the shore of the Pocantico River that runs through Philipsburg Manor is geese.  The birds sailing on the river are mostly ducks.

The geese showed up a few weeks ago. A group of them were walking on the ice covering the pond created by the Philipsburg Manor dam; they were drinking out of a hole near the shore. And in among them? A duck. (The duck might have been lonely.) I thought it was funny, but unfortunately I didn’t stop to take a picture. The return of the geese and ducks are how I know that Spring is on its way.

We are now being told that another winter storm is approaching and may hit the area. This is the end of March. It’s too late. It can come, but the snow will disappear quickly. We are now moving closer and closer to the sun.

This really was a bad winter.