Other Winters Past

The glum, disgruntled look on the face of this White-throated Sparrow perhaps says it all for most of us. Its been a long winter with many storms and they still just seem to keep on coming! After having just gotten plowed out from under a heavy winter snowfall this past weekend, we are now under a freezing rain warning for tonight and tomorrow. If we lived further north in the province we would be facing yet another deluge of the white stuff.

For today's post I have looked over photos from other winters past and have come up with a few of my favourites.
This little Horned Lark, reminds me so much of a scholar, dressed in mortar board, bow tie and tails, that this old Mother Goose rhyme came to mind.

A diller, a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar,

What makes you come so soon?

You used to come at ten o'clock,

But now you come at noon.

Standing in a still icy snow-covered field in early spring, at the end of March 2003, this lark looks as annoyed as I feel with the over-staying of winter! The tongue-in-cheek message of 'over lateness' in the rhyme seems to fit well with the snowy, lengthy winter we are having. Being not as rhythmical as Mother Goose, I just want to shout out: Winter, what makes you stay so long? You've overstayed your welcome, So now, please, BE GONE!

This is an all time favourite. Just look at all the snow! The tall Lilac tree that these American Goldfinch are perched atop is just jam-packed with ice and snow. This picture was taken following an ice storm at the end of February, 2003.

This is one of my earliest photos, taken with my first digital camera, a Sony Mavica having a 10x zoom and less that 1 megapixel. This handsome male Northern Cardinal was such an exciting photo to capture! It also would be amongst my earliest Cardinal photos ever. Cardinals are always beautiful to me but this one was especially so as photographing Cardinals was a new adventure at the time.