Day 19.051: Bad plumage day?

We spotted this bluebird with a wayward feather on Saturday. We saw it several times during the day (unless more than one was having a very similar issue!)

Day 19.050: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #545

Exile #2 writes...

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus, or, Happy St. David’s Day! We celebrated appropriately enough with Welsh cakes and a big, thankful sigh that there was no rugby this weekend.

In honor of the day, I bought some daffodils and noticed that they came with a very clear warning that they were not edible. Apparently there have been occasions when people have used them in place of onions, so labeling is now general practice, as they are actually fairly toxic. Funnily enough, the Welsh word for “leeks” is “cennin”, whilst daffodils are “cennin Pedr” or in other words, “Peter’s leeks”, so I guess the resemblance has been noted for some time. It struck me that cennin Pedr could actually be a bit of dark humor, referring to St. Peter, due to their toxicity, but Pedr’s identity seems to be lost in the mists of time, and as far as I know, he was just a Welshman with a field.

Day 19.049: Backyard birds

A few photos of birds at or near the feeders from the last week.

Hairy woodpecker

Carolina wren

American goldfinch

...having a drink

European starling

American crow

Day 19.048: It’s sugar of course

…but I wasn’t the only one who wondered for a moment what was in this bag of “Florida Crystals”. 

Day 19.047: I made a pinball table!

Exile #2 bought me this wooden pinball kit for Christmas. It was a challenging build but mostly enjoyable (I will admit to a few frustrated moments). Here are some in-progress photos:

And, in the end, after a bit of problem-solving, it not only works, but plays rather well:

Day 19.046: Snow, no snow, snow

I had the day off work today to drive Exile #3 to a medical appointment in Boston. The weather decided to make it interesting by providing a few inches of snow to “help” us along. 

The first section of the journey was fairly unpleasant. The snow was accumulating on the highway and we were in front of whatever snow clearing was happening. By the time we got into Massachusetts the big snow flakes were no longer settling and when we reached our destination the sun was trying to shine. The weekend’s storm had been the opposite of course so as we drove into the warmer weather, we also saw the snow banks from that storm increasing.

As we were preparing to set out for the return journey I took a quick photo of snow piles and blue skies. 

Happily, our journey home was on clear (and mostly even dry) roads. 

Day 19.045: Goldfinches in the snow

Yesterday, we were grazed by the northern edge of a large snowstorm. We had some strong winds and several inches of snow, but the airport in Providence, Rhode Island had more than three feet of snow, so we were let off lightly. Nevertheless, most of us decided to keep off the roads and work from home. At one point I looked out of the window and watched the goldfinches gradually gathering by landing under the feeder and then abruptly fleeing back to the nearby branches. They continued for long enough for me to get a quick video out of the bedroom window.