The Retriever, Dog, & Wildlife Blog

Posted in golden retriever, Miley | Tagged golden retriever | 4 Comments

4 Responses

1. on February 24, 2013 at 11:27 am | Reply massugu

   “Spring peepers will be out in force in a few weeks.”

   Great minds think alike and all that. As I was walking by a small drainage ditch/seasonal pool (the last hang-out for peepers in our neighborhood–most marshy areas having been filled in) this morning, I was thinking the same exact thing. I’ll also be eagerly awaiting the calls of the gray treefrogs and barking tree frogs–I always get a kick out of the uninitiated trying to figure out whose dog is barking. (These last are not supposed to live this far north and west but someone forgot to tell them. ;^) )

   
   
2. on February 24, 2013 at 1:54 pm | Reply Suhail

   I like the optimism of you two gentleman :-)

   It is still all white here.

   For the last two days I have been hiking like crazy with K2 in ankle deep snow with my DSLR hanging from my neck with a medium zoom lens. But its only when I am not carrying my camera I see all kinds of wildlife. The snow is definitely melting. I saw a Goshawk and a hairy woodpecker yesterday and a meadow vole today. I always wondered what K2 was listening to, freezing and then jumping and diving muzzle first on to just like those Ethiopian wolves. I guess they must have been meadow voles.

   Northern cardinals are common because they are no longer migrating south. So do the black capped chickadees. This may be attributable to more and more people putting bird feeders.

   Today, during my early morning 4 hour hike, I saw some baby earwigs like insects crawling over snow. As soon as they felt our presence they froze.

   Major section of Credit River in my neighbourhood is still frozen, but water may be flowing underneath. 3 ducks landed on the freezing waters of the river downstream and started wading towards us. I think they are habituated to humans feeding them.

   I get very sweaty during my hikes.

   I also feel spring in the air, but people here keep correcting me that it is not until March that something can be said with certain level of conviction.

   I will certainly miss winter and snow.

   “Hear! hear!” screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, “winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.” – Henry David Thoreau, 28 November 1858 journal entry

   
   
3. on February 24, 2013 at 7:10 pm | Reply massugu

   Hey Suhail, it’ll go back and forth for awhile here yet–we often get snow after the peepers have started and we most certainly get frosts (March is traditionally our snowiest month.)

   Can’t say I’ll miss this winter–here in n. central MD its been more mud than snow–have to limit my hikes to the hardtop right now cause its just too treacherous to walk the trails–the mud keeps swallowing my stick! We’ve had a series of light snows (less than an inch) which melt/sublimate quickly, and one storm that dropped 4.5″ of rain on us in one night, as well as several mixed-mess storms (what I call SHNEET) w/ freezing fog following. We have gotten lots of dry, windy weather as well, which kicks my asthma into overdrive (and drives our new canine adoptee, Maggie, into her crate.) All-in-all, not a nice winter.

   But! The Snowdrops are blooming, as is the Winter Sweet and Witch Hazel, Daffodils are in bud, and some forsythia–in a few protected spots–are blooming. Pileated Woodpeckers have been making a lot of noise as well, but the flocks of Juncos are still hanging around and the Cardinals haven’t paired off yet. We also saw our first mixed flock of Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds of the season, just yesterday.

   
   
   • on February 24, 2013 at 10:20 pm | Reply Suhail

     And I don’t think they bred Chesapeake Bay Retrievers in MD and made them your state dogs with this kind of weather in mind lol.

     
     

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