I was recently surprised to see to see a robin very nonchalantly hopping and flying about.
Robins overwinter here but except for very occasional December or January views of them when they stick to the dense thickets and shrubs close to the ground and near their shared winter accommodations, a sight of them is somewhat rare. This one was very active and looking rather springy, too.
I saw a pair of red-shafted northern flickers, too. They overwinter as well but also seemed to be very active; one of them was drumming and showing some mating behaviours. So, seeing these birds convinced me that we might soon be seeing spring.
But then I surprised a small flock of coots that were huddled next to the breakwater boulders along the lakeshore. They prefer the smaller ponds up in the mountains, but if those are frozen over, they are forced to move to the much bigger, open lakes. So, like the groundhogs, they might be signalling another six weeks of winter!
Hummm. A good sign and a poor sign.
Oh well, whatever we get, I’m not going to complain since our winter has been very mild.
Happy Tuesday.
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 
Wow amazing birds. I have never heard of coots but lovely to see so many of them together.
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I think the coots are probably a lot more useful for predicting the coming weather than the groundhogs. But that’s because I don’t think groundhogs has much to say about the weather or winter. Anyway, those are great bird photos.
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I love the flock of coots! Their geometry…
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I’ll be sixty five in July. Is that old enough to be an old coot or will I just be an old geezer forever?
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So many coots. Hope they are not predicting a longer winter as I feel it has been long enough already. We are headed back above 0 here for the next week or so. Yay, slush. Happy Tuesday Lynette. Allan
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I’ve never seen that many Coots in one place before, Lynette! They make that funny clicking sound and have the weirdest looking feet.
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