Sing it, Sam

In spite of yet more snow overnight, the birds are on a clock which is telling them that spring is coming.  The woodpeckers could be heard drumming in the woods, blackbirds and house finches were singing, and the White-throated Sparrows were all practicing their lovely sweet songs.  Their song is one of the most beautiful, in my opinion.  Right up there with thrush songs.  

As usual, the snow brought lots of birds into the feeders, including several grackles who were way too skittish to have their photos taken.  I swear, they knew I was in the hide and wouldn't come out of the trees until I went back in the house.  But patience will win the day - I'll get them yet.  

I am chicken-sitting for my friends so I ran over and had a chat with the girls while quietly robbing their nests.  They didn't seem to mind, even when I had to reach under a couple of the hens.  In return, I made sure they had lots of fresh water and food.  I'm a bit of a sucker for chickens, if you must know.  They were all clustered around me, anxious to see if I'd brought anything more interesting then chicken food, clucking softly.  Maybe tomorrow I'll bring some mealworms...

Speaking of tomorrow, it looks like we may get a large dump of snow.  The forecasts are changing by the hour but at this moment, the prediction is for up to 10 inches on top of what we already have.  And since it isn't very cold, it will be the wet, difficult to remove kind of snow.  But, since it is supposed to start mid-day, it will make blipping easy - yes, another bird-in-snow picture.  You're probably pretty well tired of those by now.

Cheers,
Debbi

PS:  Three more pics on Flickr, including one of a white-throated sparrow who is missing his tail - for real.  Click HERE