As I’m home during the early morning, and thus limited to photos that just arrived. Today we have a short but sweet set of two from Stephen Barnard, who’s been AWOL for a while.
First, a House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus):
And then Deets, one of Stephen’s two Border Collies (the other is Hitch). As he says, the fresh snow “amps them up”. This is an “almost all black dog”, but doesn’t count as such for my purposes.
There’s nothing like seeing a happy dog in snow. Thank you for the smiles, Stephen.
Nice shot of the house finch, Stephen, and of Deets of course!
Good thing those dogs have a wide range to run in!
The house finch’s familiar song and call are here:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch/sounds
Two magnificent beauties! Thanks, Stephen.
(We’ll be getting around 15cm of snow later today in SW Ontario. Could feel weird after the balmy 15C of yesterday.)
Holy crap, 15°C?! Wow!
Yes! Everyone was out, walking and basking in the sunshine, and the playgrounds were all abuzz. But it’s only -2° to 1°C today, so it’s back to parkas and other winter paraphernalia. Boo. I am ready for spring; after all, the starlings are back!
Ha! The big snow didn’t materialize here. One cm, if that.
Lovely photos! Allow me to jump in with the obvious observation (and at the risk of being accused of assigning gender roles) that the house finch is the male of the species.
Love the dog photo, both excellent photos
I really never get enough of Stephen Barnard’s photos.
Very pretty pictures! Beautiful focus especially on the finch.
Outstanding photographs.
t’was good that! Thanks.
This is the worst time of year for photography or fishing or anything else here. Birds and animals are scarce and the light is usually poor. Occasionally the sun peeks out for a photo, but it’s mostly a waste of time to try. I write this during the most intense snowfall of the winter.
“Spring beckons! All things to the call respond; the trees are leaving and cashiers abscond.” Ambrose Bierce
Proofreading this after the fact, and helpless to edit it, I’m embarrassed that my mammalian “classism” is revealed — implicitly excluding birds from “animals”. That’s wrong on epistemological, taxonomic, lexical, and ethical grounds. 🙂
As an occasional amateur photographer of wildlife, I value a quality photo of a mammal, all else equal, higher than a photo of a bird, fish, insect or plant. Pure classism. Maybe an intersectional feminist can explain it.
Cute! Thanks for the pics!