15 Days Until Crane Fun

Well, it's been two days since April Fools, and though I didn't pull any pranks this year, I still feel giddy. Why? Well, first of all, I only have about half a month until I fly out to Baraboo, Wisconsin. Huzzah!
Second, even though it's April, there's still snow here in western New York. Most wouldn't find that to be cause for celebration, but snow makes me happy. And things that make me happy are, needless to say, excellent.

Winter doesn't go quietly around here, as you can see by the state of things at the Irondequoit Marina.

The Snow Geese are still here in force as well. It's not hard to find small flocks on the lakes or even in roadside fields.
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The Chimney Bluffs on the shore of Lake Ontario, looking majestic in the morning light.

One of the new, exciting places I've had the privilege of checking out recently is Beaver Lake Nature Center, located a mere fifteen minutes outside of Syracuse. The trails surrounding the nature center are great, preserving some neat bog habitat that is far from common in the modern day. I only wish that I could see it when winter finally releases its hold on the area and the bog (technically a fen) really comes to life.

The nature center itself has some really neat little exhibits, in addition to a grand set of bird feeders, with ample seating and viewing space for any visitors wanting to admire the tiny, feathery wonders that live around them.

Hungry American Goldfinches were well-represented here, with one or two males even starting to show signs of molting into their breeding plumage. Also taking advantage of the plentiful food source where Common Redpolls (the ones with the little black face marks and reddish caps), finches that come to the continental U.S. during winter in search of food.

There were some larger visitors to the feeder too, including a few Downy Woodpeckers (top) and these two lazy Mourning Doves (below).

This wild-looking female cardinal bullied the smaller songbirds away from her feeder, and after the first couple of tries, they got the message.

Not a big showing of Tufted Titmice here, but I spotted a few, including this guy.

 White-Breasted Nuthatches are rarely so obliging. I didn't notice until later that I had also caught a Black-Capped Chickadee in the top shot.

That's a lot of food for one little Dark-Eyed Junco.

One of my favorite songbirds, this Red-Breasted Nuthatch was being an absolute pain in the tail feather. Not only did it rarely come close enough to attempt a picture, but when it did, it was lightning-fast grabbing its morsel of choice and off to the woods again. A second's difference would've made the difference between a perfect photo and this butt-shot.

That's all on my end, I suppose. To round things off, I'll leave you with a couple of videos that have entertained me recently. First are some gloriously adorable baby devils. If you don't smile during the last 8 seconds, you may not have a soul.

Also, I usually can't stomach Jimmy Fallon, but this is absolutely worth it for the brilliant performance by Florence Welch towards the end.

Until next time!