There are lots of Canada geese about, in these parts at least. I suspect most are new arrivals and not the resident birds that have been here all winter. There aren’t any snow geese yet, however.
It’s the first week of February so they won’t be long. In two weeks the skies will be full of those squeaky birds.
Cranes will filter in after that. I’ve seen them as early as the last week of February, but it’s March when they descend in force. The snow geese will have fled by then, as will most of the migrating Canada geese.
It feels as though the cranes just left. More cranes stopped along the Platte River in the fall than anyone can remember. The famous migration is in the spring, when the birds stay for a month, fattening up on waste corn in the fields near the river. It seemed strange so many linger in the spring yet scoot through with barely an overnight in the fall when they seem to regard the Great Plains just some cheap Motel 6 where they can rest a bit before getting to where they are going.
I often see them in the fall, first hearing them from far off while I hunt along the edges of those corn fields they favor in the spring. Once the cranes get close enough I look for them, though for birds so big they can be tough to pick out. Their quavering calls echo off the sky and they are usually riding high on the currents pushing them south.
Still, I find the compulsion to put eyeballs on cranes irresistible. If I hear them I must stop what I’m doing long enough to find them.
The good news on the winter weather front is that Southern California is starting to get some rain near Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. There’s no sign of desert rain where my quail live, but an atmospheric river is hitting the coast hard enough that there are flooding worries in northern California.
This, while at the same time there’s a winter storm warning in the Flathead.
After a dreadfully dry fall broiled the southwest into kindling and threatened a damaging El Niño/La Nina feud, are we finally getting a winter that is just right?
Speaking of winter, The New York Times has a new gimmick, the “10-Minute Challenge.” The idea is that you spend 10 minutes on the news org’s website contemplating a work of art. You can zoom in on the high-resolution image to see all kinds of details, including brush strokes and tiny flecks of color.
It’s a clever idea, both from an art appreciation angle and that of a website guru. I can imagine some analytics team leader bragging in the break room about how visit duration is up 25% since the art challenge was launched.
The most recent edition featured the painting “Hunters in the Snow,” by Dutch Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Times didn’t get a 10-minute chunk of me, but the clock recording visit duration did pass seven minutes, and that’s not counting my time reading the description of the painting that followed.
I’ve got a shorter version of the description: western Montana in winter.
While the painting is fascinating, it’s all sullen grays and blues, a weary landscape that no doubt sparkles in warmer months, but you can only infer that from your memory of summer rather than the painting itself.
The hunters are trudging back to town largely empty-handed. They hold long spears and one has slung a dead fox over his shoulder. The skinny dogs on their heels have the look of a pack that knows there won’t be much left for them to eat tonight.
I’m with the dogs. I’m neither pining for leftover roasted fox nor more icy winter escapades. I’m ready for spring.