rain rain, go away! ...wait, I didn't mean you should do *that*

[julian]

Today, it snowed.



Yesterday, while it was gently drizzling forever, I took a walk around the Capron Park area.

These guys were hanging out in a flock on someone's lawn, and looked to be eating mostly grass. Does grass taste better when it's wet? Probably, really, they were eating worms too, I just didn't see that part. Anyway, I think the guy in front is possibly a brown headed cowbird, or, if not, a starling. (And I think the one in back is no relation.) Most of the flock was like the guy in front, but wiki says other birds do hang out with them, so this is not entirely illogical.





Squirrels are a dime a dozen, but I feel bad for them once I've made them freeze, and figure I should at least take a reasonably OK picture of them for their troubles, so, have a squirrel.



A rose in October.



I have no idea what this is (it's one of the sorts of things that lives in pots), but it's entertaining to me.



A (fairly old) smashed pumpkin, next to the steps of the old high school. I like the colors. Or the composition. Or something.



This person had half their lawn dedicated to these mushrooms, so I imagine they're raising them on purpose. Which is kind of cool.



A leaf on the ground.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Some really cracking work here! :o)

Love the fungi, but you knew I would!

[julian]

I did, in fact, think of you when I saw it.

[yourlibrarian]

Love the pics of the flowers! That rose in the rain is particularly lovely.

[julian]

Thank you. It made the rainyness worth it.

[angrboda]

I agree about the brown-headed cowbird. It's not a bird I know, as it doesn't live in these parts, but looking it up, I'd say it was fairly conclusive. It's likely a male and a female. Starlings have thinner, slightly longer beaks.

[julian]

Oh, so the one in back's female? That makes sense. They do live in multi-species flocks, but generally that happens deeper into winter.

[angrboda]

Yes, that would be my guess. They have the same shape and size beak, and if you look it up, the female is just a solid greyish brown.

[pameladean]

I too think that's a brown-headed cowbird. We get them mixed in with starlings and robins. There are a lot of mixed flocks in the winter; apparently their different food-locating strategies support one another quite well and all the birds benefit more than they would in flocks of only one type of bird. We get flickers and grackles or flickers and robins a lot too.

The rose photos are stunning. And wow, those mushrooms are LUSH.

P.

[julian]

I knooowww. It wasn't even really a trick of perspective, they were just layered that closely.

I know we get flickers, I just haven't seen one consciously. Grackles, yes. (And I don't care the noises they make, they're gorgeous.)

[shirebound]

Great shots! It's been raining here for days and should be down in the low 30s by morning, but I don't think there's any snow forecast.

[julian]

Thank you! (At least you're not getting an ice storm? Some've my more vivid PA/NJ memories are of ice storms...)

[shirebound]

Not yet, but this is the coldest morning so far -- 31 degrees.

[marycatelli]

Snowed here too. But then it mostly melted. And there's a killing frost tonight that snow would have helped against.

Ah, well, the garden's gotta end its year someday.

[julian]

Can still rescue the last of the {whatever}, though!