Silly Saturday ...

... Smiling Squirrel.

The day did not start off silly as we had to go out to check on a dead snow goose that we saw yesterday.  Unfortunately, we have read about lots of snow geese dying from the bird flu (more than 300 at last count) but this was the first we had actually seen.  Last night I had contacted a wildlife rescue woman that I know as I know she has been working with the Pocono Rehab facility in getting the sick and dead birds to them.  She had asked me to go back this morning to see if the goose was still there and to take pictures for her. Sadly the goose was still there in the pond plus there were several others.  It's really heartbreaking seeing and reading about these beautiful birds dying from the avian flu.  

On a happier note ... when we returned I sat out in the back garden ... despite the bitter cold ... to photograph the squirrels and birds for Silly Saturday.  At one point I was using the 600mm lens to capture some tighter shots.  I've added a collage of some of the birds shots in Extras. The tags below will identify each bird ... in clockwise order from upper left. 

And even though the day is almost done by the time I'm posting this I will remind you that today is indeed the hosted Silly Saturday ... hosted by yours truly.  I've already seen lots of silly entries ... but I will go through them all in the next couple of days and give out stars to all that participated. Hearts and honorable mentions will be awarded hopefully by Friday.  In case you haven't posted yet the tags are: SilSJan2025, SilS431, Silly Saturday.