Flowers, Birds and Fog

Just a few things:

We've had at least one dandelion blooming in the yard each month ALL winter.

Our crocuses are croaking and the mini-irises are up and blooming. The daffodils are not far behind. I've noticed quite a few already blooming around the area.

There's been a pair of goldfinches at our feeders for the last week or so. I usually only catch a flash of yellow when they're in flight. The only other place I've seen one is on the chicory flowers at Howell Farm. Goldfinches are the New Jersey state bird and I've seen more here in Tenn. than I ever did in NJ.

There have also been a couple of nuthatches in the pear tree and on the pole that holds feeders, another rare sighting.

The killdeers are back after about a two week hiatus. Noisy buggers. And the robins were gone for about the same length of time. Now the place is crawling with male robins getting ready to stake out territory.

It rained off and on today and was in the high 50s. Then this evening when it started cooling off, fog started developing at the bottom of the yard near the chicken coop because it's cooler there than up near the house. I've noticed that cool-air-flowing-downhill phenomenon other times when I go down to close the chicken coop for the night. It's only about a 6 foot difference in elevation, over about 100 feet, but there is a definite change of temperature. It could be because the slope going up to the neighbor's property is about the same grade, but longer, at least 200-250 feet, so ending up with a 12-15 foot difference. In the other direction, the yard is flat for about 200 feet, then drops much more steeply, 15-20 feet in only 100-150 feet distance, which sucks the cold air down. So that cold I feel by the chicken coop is probably just passing through.

If it doesn't stop raining so much, there won't be any worms left in our soil. They keep crawling out onto the concrete carport and dying there.

I saw barn cat, Camille, take a leap at a cardinal today. She missed. But I know she gets them every so often because I've found red feathers on the ground near the feeders.