My Mom, Waiting for a Friend and a Harbinger of Spring

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My Mother grew up on a dairy farm in south central New York State . The Susquehanna River flowed by and was the south border of my Grandfather's farm. One of mom's favorite signs of spring was the Red-winged Blackbird. She would get so excited to see one of these beautiful birds in spring because to her it meant within in a couple of weeks it was going to be warm, almost hot most of the time, as I've discovered over the years. I will admit I've caught my mother's excitement or that beautiful Blackbird too. It is a “Harbinger of Spring” for me too. The red-winged blackbird loves marshy wet lands. The male is the beauty with red and yellow stripes on his black wings. He's hard to miss. The female is “plain Jane”, a small brown bird, who no one remembers...poor thing. I'm sick of winter, and the bird in the photo above made me happy yesterday. I was sitting in my car waiting for a friend who met me in a parking lot in Port Dalhousie. Port Dalhousie is a fabulous tourist area in the summer, on the shore of Lake Ontario with the Welland Canal running through it. It is famous for its marinas. Port Dalhousie is empty in the winter, except for locals who feed the birds. Every day there are piles of bird seed all around the huge parking lot and lots of people feeding them by hand too. Gulls, Canada Geese, ducks and smaller birds flock there to be fed. I hope to be able to feel the heat in a couple of weeks. That ice and snow we got the other day is still here and being at the Port yesterday was COLD. I shot a photo of the red winged blackbird yesterday from my car. When I got the photos on the computer I was amazed what else I caught. Check out the sparrow in the bottom photo spreading his wings (hovering) and starting to fly away from my camera. I love surprises like those...