Seasons swing, but birds not bothered

From blue skies to gray

If you hadn’t looked at the forecast early this week, you may have been fooled into thinking on Tuesday that spring weather was here to stay, as the sun was shining and the temperatures were what you’d typically associate with that season.

Wednesday brought about a reality check, though, that Old Man Winter can still find ways to linger into late April, as the high temperature struggled to get out of the 30s and the surest sign of winter — snow — covered the ground, though just a dusting.

No matter the weather, though, I do like to keep my camera close at hand, which presented some fun photography opportunities those two days.

The first chance came about on Tuesday (seen in the photo above) when I pulled into the parking space in my grandmother’s back yard and saw this sparrow perched on a tree branch that was just starting to show its flowering buds.

Knowing that the colder temperatures were less than 24 hours away, I nonetheless took the opportunity to photograph some of the surer signs of spring and warmth and captured this fun photo.

Wednesday felt more like “staying inside” weather for me, but I got a tip that was too good to resist in the early afternoon when my dad called to tell me he’d just spotted a bald eagle not far from where I’d taken Tuesday’s photo on Route 310 just outside of Reynoldsville.

The big bird in the bunch is seen here (left photo) after being forced to take flight by the crow also pictured that wasn’t happy the eagle had been treading on its territory.

One thing is a certainty — warmer weather is on the way. But until it’s here to stay, we can look back on the photos from the warm days and the cold ones.