Wednesday's Wanderings......

I don't think the cardinals are molting.  I just think one of them dropped a feather for some reason.  Bird colors don't always appear as we think, they are a reflected colors in some cases.  Sometimes when you see a male cardinal it can have a very brown color reflecting from its back.  In a different light they appear to be completely red.  This feather is the same.  If I could twirl it you would see flashes of red showing.

When my sunflower seeds are gone from the  variety seed the cardinals disappear.  I bet they eat millet only as a last choice if they are really hungry.  I will fill the feeders this afternoon since a blizzard is on the way.  I have noticed they eat early morning right before a snow and then return in the evening if things have calmed down.  The purple finch are showing up a lot more than they did to the feeder but they hang out at the grain silos north of town eating up the spilled seed corn.

The Austrian pine has grown since I planted the a few years ago.  The one on the other side of the sidewalk caught fire during the burning of leaves this past fall. I am going to leave it for the summer and see what it will look like after the end of the season.  It is sad to see but I could still look good with just one of them out there.







As mentioned earlier, blizzard warnings continue.  Early morning national weather thought maybe Iowa wasn't on the map, but later in the morning Al Rocker did finally admit the storm would travel through Iowa  before moving into Illinois. The early map didn't show any weather over Minnesota nor Iowa.  I guess they were in a hurry to do the weather when they first set up for the morning.
I am in the PE department again today doing the health side of classes and also the weight lifting classes.  I didn't take the lifters to the weight room and they just played basketball.  It is an abbreviated short day today so I will get out of here early today.  I need to stop a second and check on the neighbor and the rest of the day is mine.  Thank you for stopping by today.

PS  I won some dishes from Blackberry Lane's giveaway.  More news later but you check out her blog to see the dishes I won.  My wife is so happy and was sort of surprised.  I didn't tell that I had entered the contest.