Alder Pine Siskins

After late Breakfast, paddled over to the Village...while walking under the Oaks beside the Road along Bobcat Meadow, glimpsed Big Wing Shadow...looked back, and sighted Hawk, Cedar, flying towards Flicker Grove, where I'd just been checking for Mallards, which hadn't arrived yet, Hummock Ponds still frozen...the Ponds thaw around noon....lost sight of Hawk, and continued on to the Village...w2 in mail...tax time...hmmph...paddled back along the Road, and just past the Club House from the Road Side, sighted Mallards landing at the Ponds....Six Mallards thereabout when I arrived...more pics and clips...Blue Jays, Acorn Woodpeckers, Grey Squirrel high in an Oak...in the Backyard were Five Grey Squirrels, and on the return, in the Backyard, Pine Siskin Flock high in the Tall Alder....pic up....waitedwaited for Siskins to fly up for Flying Flock pic...light perfect...but time...sunny blueblue warm....oh...at Lower Falls, sighted first Tortoiseshell Butterfly...pic....almost every year I see the first Tortoiseshell thereabout, usually sunning on a Ponderosa....Little Birds by the Cabin too, but too high up in the Cedars...maybe Cassin's Vireo...Pileated Woodpecker call back by the Creek while watching Siskins....and of course, Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his Shadow, and while awake at Sunup, I curled back up in my Burrow...