Nature diary

[signoftea]

It snowed today, and I was wondering what the beach would look like covered in snow, so I went for a walk to see it. It was very pretty!

The migratory birds are here now, and some of them spend the winter at the shore. I spent some time watching a flock of sanderlings and turnstones as they were looking for food in the mud. Some crows kept following them around. It looked like the smaller birds were scared of the crows and tried to avoid them. There were many seagulls, too. My birding app even registered the call of a loon! Loons normally live in North America and Iceland, but some of them migrate to Europe during the winter months.

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

Delicate shadings of silver and periwinkle. It looks like one of those days when the distinction between states of matter blurs; I’ve walked the beach on cloudy days when the horizon is a gradient rather than a line, and looked out airplane windows and reflected that cumulus clouds and snowdrifts assume much the same shapes.

The small wading birds were right to be apprehensive: crows (A) will eat anything and (B) think they’re funny.

And how cool that you encountered The Voice Of The Canadian Wilderness so far from home!

[signoftea]

You're right about the states of matter. Sometimes it's impossible to tell the difference!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Ooo! Nice. The beach in snow!

[zenigotchas]

Beautiful and life affirming. Thank you.

[cmcmck]

Lovely!

We've had our first snow here in north Shropshire in the UK too.

[signoftea]

Thanks! In the meantime, the snow has already melted again here. We rarely get snow that lasts more than a few hours.

[earthspirits]

Lovely pic!

[signoftea]

Thank you!

[adafrog]

Neat.

[kaishin108]

How beautiful!

[yourlibrarian]

How cool, I never thought about snow covered beaches before!

[signoftea]

I guess everyone connects beaches with summer and sunshine, but they're beautiful in other seasons, too!

[jazzyjj]

Oh noo-o, please don't mention that 4-letter word, lol! But I do like the beach. Btw, the screen reader on my Mac read the photo description just fine as I passed over it with the navigation command. I'm going to look at it on my phone, and see if it will give more of a description. But this is cool.

[signoftea]

Right, snow can bring a lot of trouble. I hope the image description shows up for you; I did add one.

[chestnut_pod]

That's stunning.

[pameladean]

That's so lovely.

I am laughing at the sudden, if tardy, realization that the Minnesota State Bird (the common loon) is much more widely-travelled than I am.

P.

[signoftea]

Migratory birds are much more widely-travelled than I am, too! I dream of travelling more than I actually do it.

[cesy]

Amazing!

[shirebound]

Thanks for sharing this sight with us!

[a_natural_beauty]

That sounds so lovely. What a beautiful photo, thank you for sharing. <3

[signoftea]

Thanks! :)

[a_natural_beauty]

You're welcome :-)

[turlough]

Lovely photo! The migratory birds have all left us now, even here in southern Sweden. Probably our loons too - we have both black-throated and red-throated loons here.

[jesse_the_k]

What a brilliant idea and lovely picture.