More birds.

3-18-17 SHORT HILLS: We’re back after an uneventful red-eye flight Wednesday night. We picked up the dogs at the kennel in snow and ice covered NJ. After filling the feeders and winding the clocks, I caught up on sleep.

There’s a lot of snow here, about a foot at first, but less each day that is above 32°. The snow cover always looks the same from day to day until it gets down to the last few inches, and then bare areas appear in the sunniest spots. Today we are receiving a rain/snow mix. After April in February, we have January in March.

The birds are hitting the feeders with a vengeance. I have been refilling them every day. Speaking of birds, I have more pix from Los Gatos and a hike that Judy and I did with Siobhan and Pam last Monday. We hiked along Los Gatos creek, which is still carrying high volume. We could see that the creek banks had been swept clean by the previous torrent when the L G reservoir spillway was open. There were a few trees that had been taken down. We walked up to the reservoir and saw a few minor mudslides in the canyon from the days of heavy rain.


NJ cardinal has puffed up his feathery coat to stay warm.

California scrub jay from the back...

And front. This bird has vivid color.

At the L G reservoir, behind the Canada geese is an American coot, looks like a duck, swims like a duck, but is not a duck.

Another blue heron, this one in Los Gatos creek.

Mallards in L G creek.

Stellar's jay.