I didn’t start work until 9 AM yesterday, enough extra time in the morning for me to notice a hawk on the post out back and head out with the camera. The hawk had taken off, but there was a black and white bird out there that didn’t look familiar. Merlin said it was a Merganser, which I thought were all black, but the info said that they can be anything from all white to all black. I guess it’s that fleshy orange nose piece that sets them apart. It was a pretty bird though, another one I didn’t think I’d seen before.
By the time I finished work I had a severe weather alert on my phone when I picked it up to head home. But that message goes away when you unlock the phone and I seldom look to see what exactly we might expect as far as severe weather goes. And that’s because it (almost) never materializes. Like the boy that cried wolf, those messages are easily ignored, and yesterday was no exception. Apologies to anyone who really did have some ‘weather’ yesterday, I realize that my view of the world is rather limited. (Fast forward to Weds. morning and I see that all my northern friends and relatives had much worse weather than we did. Hoping all are well.)
Perhaps the Sandhill cranes pay more attention to the weather than I do, because I was surprised to see them on a lawn as I drove through the neighborhood heading home. I took some iPhone photos and headed home thinking they’d soon be out on the lake, coming back earlier because of the weather. I was hearing thunder by then. The hawk was back on the post, just as he had been that morning. And one of the adult cranes took exception to that Merganser and chased him off. Nice when the photo ops come to you on a severe weather alert sort of day.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 