The greening of January?

I'm all for greening up stuff. I love green plants and I love green living...

However....something about the warmth and the accompanying plant growth this January just seems wrong...

My strawberries are putting out new leaves and new runners...

Dandelions are popping up in my yard as well...

Tansy is growing...

And maple is budding...

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for spring...but this just doesn't feel right to me...

What a weird winter, huh?

To Provincetown and back...

We took the day to drive down Cape and see what we could see....

the sky and the light over Fort Hill and Nauset Marsh were just beautiful...

Coast Guard Beach was incredibly windy but gorgeous...

This little tree on the bluff was pretty wind blown...

 The view from Marconi in Wellfleet was breathtaking...

And by the time we reached Herring Cove in Provincetown the sun was shining...

There was quite a bit of surf but the gulls didn't mind...

At Race Point the wind practically knocked us off our feet...

We got sandblasted a bit but the view was worth it...

What a day!

Beautiful foggy morning...

Last night it warmed up and rained and our snow vanished into mist...

At the beach you could only see the water close up...even the gulls were mostly hidden in the mist

The black ducks in the marsh continued to dabble...

and the overall view was pretty subdued and lovely...

The harbors were socked in...

and even the fishing boats looked like ghosts in the distance

Even as I write this the sun is burning off the fog and soon all this mist and all that snow will be long forgotten...

but for just a little while there was magic at the beach on a January morning....

The first snow....

We've waited a long time to see more than a dusting of snow here on the Cape but this morning it began as I got to the beach...

There wasn't a single other person around and it was still and silent except for a few gulls....

a small flock of buffleheads...

and the quiet lapping of the water against the frozen sand..

At a different beach along the way there were empty benches and empty docks...

I love these quiet mornings when I can pretend that I am alone and that the beach is here just for me, even if it is for just a short time.

Have a happy snow day today!

Finally....

some ice and snow! Not much but hey, the way this winter is going....this may be it!

On the south side we didn't get much...just a dusting, really

but when we drove a few miles to the north side we found ice in Barnstable Harbor...

some actual snow on the beach...

and some lovely views....

even the marsh had an icing...

but that didn't keep this guy from heading out to check his lobster pots...

as we were leaving the beach I took this shot...is there anything lonelier looking than an empty lifeguard chair in winter?

Sunny but cold and windy....

We have been so spoiled by warm weather this winter that a windy cold day like today on the beach is almost a shock. Yesterday was much windier but today was.....brrrrrrrrrr! It was so bright and sunny though that I decided to just head down Cape to see what I could see...

First stop was First Encounter Beach in Eastham. Can we say frigid with a brisk wind blowing off the bay? It sure was pretty though...

Even the dunes and wind blown cedars were pretty....

and I'm a sucker for a pathway that leads to the sea....

then off to Coast Guard Beach...where it was also just plain cold...

There weren't too many long distance beach walkers but there were a few...

The sun was so bright it almost hurt my eyes....

It was low tide in the marsh....

On the way back home I stopped at Corporation Beach in Dennis where the gulls were all hanging out on the sand....

A few came by to see me, hoping I had food I think. The minute I opened the car door about a hundred gulls were on the wing and on the way to see me up close and personal.

This one looked at me from one side and then turned to look at me from the other side...

It was a cold morning, but a beautiful one and well worth venturing out for....

Of Winter Robins....

Back in the day the robins flew south for the winter and didn't reappear until the first of March, often being the first harbingers of spring....

We rarely saw robins in winter until the late 70s and early 80s when it began to be noted that larger, chunkier robins seemed to be arriving in December and January. After a while it was determined that these were not our own summer robins but robins that traveled down from farther north to feast on our berries and enjoy our usually milder winters. If the winter was very harsh these robins continued south but many years they hung around.

Here on the Cape we have many things northern robins enjoy besides a milder climate. We have tons of berry laden bushes and trees and robins love berries. They especially love cedar but will move on to holly berries as well.

Some years there are so many winter robins that huge roosts of many thousands form, especially in the Sandwich and Barnstable area. Other years, like this year, there are lots and lots of robins around but the roosts are not quite as large. Some people speculate that this is because there is plenty of food available over a broad area so the birds spread out more.

If you have been out this week near any sort of trees or shrubs with berries you know there are lots of robins around. People ask me a lot if they are robins that are back early or what is bringing them here. No, they are not back early--those thinner, smaller and migration weary robins will be back as usual the first week of March. These heftier guys will either hang around while the weather is good for them and return to their own homes in the spring or they will head farther south if the weather hits a cold patch here. Like many wintering species, these birds are pretty opportunistic and will go where the food is and where the roosting is safest and warmest.

In the meantime, enjoy the ongoing robin show for it is in full force right now with dozens and dozens of birds showing up in lots of yards and other places.

Keep your eyes and ears open for often they are accompanied by other berry eating birds like the lovely cedar waxwings...

I hope this helps answer some of those robins in winter questions....

Of Ducks and Swans....

Winter is a great time to get close up looks at many of our more common ducks and swans and some of the less common ones, too...

like these gadwalls...

These swans and mallards are much friendlier...

in fact they hurried right over--probably hoping for a handout...

as they got closer, however, they ran into an obstacle...

There was a thin sheen of ice at the edge of the pond and you can see the swan above checking it out--great reflections, too!

I had a lot of fun photographing the various combinations of birds and reflections...

the one above is probably my favorite--it has such an abstract quality about it.

but then there's the simplicity in this one above and the one below....

and just think, when I got there this is all I expected...

What a beautiful day it's been today--I hope you got to get outside for some of it!