This picture was taken on February 11 after getting 51 inches of snow in 5 days.
This picture was taken this morning, March 10, after more than a week of warming temperatures and bright sunshine.
The snow is quickly melting away without causing flooding. Flowers are sprouting up all around the yard.
The official start of Spring is only 10 days away – come on Spring!
Accuweather.com says “March 1st is the official start of meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The months of December, January and February make up the coldest three months of the year, which is meteorological winter. Meteorological spring continues through the end of May.”
Accuweather.com historical weather data supports the above in the sense that the average high temperature for days in March is in the 50’s and 60’s, and the average low temperatures are above freezing. Historical temperatures will improve steadily with the Hi/Lo reaching 60/40+ by March 24. We can only hope our actual temperatures improve that quickly as well.
We have learned from experience that the swimming pool water temperature closely tracks the average Lo temperature for the period so it will have a large bearing on opening the pool for the season.
Welcome March and meteorological spring! 19 days until the Spring Solstice when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal.
Poolside frog planters patiently wait in the snow on Feb 28 for Spring!
Donna asked the question “do hawks mate for life?” Her research discovered several sources that agreed they do; however, scientists have learned from DNA testing that typically 40% of the offspring are not fathered by the mate. Apparently, while the male is out philandering around, the same thing is happening at his nest.
Mr. and Mrs. Red-shouldered Hawk come to visit.
These daffodils are sprouting as the snow melts away in preparation for the arrival of Spring in 20 days.
Under the Winter snow and ice below is our swimming pool, which we hope to open in 53 days.
Swimming pool on February 28.
Progress has been made since the February 11 record snowfalls as pictured below.
Swimming pool under 51 inches of snow February 11.
Come Spring!
On Friday morning, we hadn’t seen the hawks for two days. After a night of light snow and heavy winds, we wondered where the hawks go during storms. Donna’s research found an explanation in Wikipedia that says hawks are sensitive to atmospheric pressure changes that precede a storm. They flee the storms, often riding the wind to safe havens – wind surfing!
So we were thinking they had left the area, at least temporarily. Well, don’t believe all you read. That afternoon, I was taking out waste for the compost pile when I saw one of the hawks in a tree in our neighbors yard. I called our neighbors, who were enjoying their visit as well.
Now that we recognize their calls, we have been hearing them early in the morning. This is Mrs. Hawk overlooking our back yard patiently looking for rodents, we expect. Small birds and squirrels are not frightened away by the hawks. Crows don’t mess with them. We haven’t seen Mr. Hawk for several days.
Yesterday morning, the hawk we thought was the young one was back perched in a tree just outside our family room. Donna questioned where we could find more information about the hawks to understand what was going on with them. My reserach ended up at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wild Acres Program web site, which turns out to be an excellent resource.
The web site provided contact information for the program Director, Marilyn Mause, who provided lots of good information. She sent me a link to the Cornell University web site All About Birds info for the hawks. This confirmed our identification of the hawks.
Marilyn explained that these hawks are very common in this region. They are generally in deeper woods but because of the extreme weather they have come out looking for food. She thought the pair was probably a male-female preparing to nest. They feed on mice and small rodents so their perching is watching the areas around the yard where rodents might appear.
Here is a video of one of the hawks.
Red-shouldered Hawk Feb 23 from John Farrell on Vimeo.
Now we think we know the whole story…
Yesterday we were surprised with the appearance of the Red-shouldered Hawk. Today, were are amazed to have two of them visit our wildlife habitat. They look like a parent and a child. The young one is extremely curious and is fearless. The parent stays back making noise as if to call the child away but like humans, the child ignores the parents concerns.
The young hawk has flown all around the property since this morning. It has chased after crows, and perched on the bird feeder pole. It flew up to the back deck when Donna and I were taking pictures, landing within 8 feet of where we were standing. Donna put out food on the deck but the older hawk would not let the younger one get near it.
An amazing experience!
This hawk appeared by surprise this afternoon. I’m not sure but it could be an immature Red-shouldered Hawk based on the bird books we have. It has perched itself high and low in a number of trees. Small birds continue to visit the bird feeders and a squirrel ran across the snow right in front of it – go figure? It came close to the house perching on the top of the umbrella no more than 10 ft. from the house. The hawk tried to attack our Cockatiel, which is caged just inside the glass door by the umbrella. The Cockatiel, called Balkie, really didn’t like the attention.
On Friday afternoon, we were driving West on Northern Parkway in Baltimore City in heavy traffic. We noticed the snow had melted and grassy areas were exposed, which was quite surprising. In one of those areas, I saw my first Robin this year. It was searching the ground for something to eat. Donna didn’t see it so she questioned if I had really seen a Robin.
This Sunday morning, two days later, we visited a church in Columbia where the snow had melted exposing ground near the building entrance. There were two Robins in the grass looking for food. This time Donna saw them both before anyone else. Now she knows I probably had seen a Robin on Friday.
These were both encouraging signs of Spring!
While lots of snow has melted over the past several days, there is still a lot. The heavy rains forecast for Monday and Tuesday should get rid of a lot more snow.
As of February 21, there are 27 days to Spring, and 63 days until Donna wants the swimming pool opened.
Come on Spring!
The world celebrated Valentine’s Day this past Sunday. Donna and I celebrated it also but we also celebrated our wedding anniversary, and a significant one at that – 40 years! Donna picked the day for our wedding so I would have no excuse to forget. I could never forget that day, and I’m more thankful each year that goes by.
We couldn’t get away for more than one night right now so we found a bed and breakfast in Front Royal, VA, one area we wanted to visit. There were a couple very good used book stores we visited, some small shops on their Main St. to check out, and a wonderful little gourmet restaurant where we had dinner on Saturday. The B&B is listed in the National Historical Register, built in 1869. It was comfortable and hospitable. We enjoyed meeting the hosts and learning about their renovation of the building and it’s history.
This was a modest celebration of a major milestone but we enjoyed the get-away and visiting the Front Royal area. Most of all, we enjoyed the time to just be together without any other things to do.
40 years and the honeymoon still continues!
