I saw a flicker the other morning doing drum solo's to impress the girls. Clever lad was drumming on the metal cap over a telephone pole and getting much more volume for his effort than he would have on on plain wood.

The ony spring show off I see here are the snowdrops ready to go but shivering in the snow. shiver But when the sun shines the birds already start their singing show off.

The male cardinals around here are getting progressively redder.

The past few mornings I have seen cherry blossoms starting to pink the trees.

Pink snow?

Don't eat pink snow.

The things I learn here! I did not know it really happens! Looked it up. Not nice at all.

Don't eat pink snow.
Or yellow snow.
The pink is caused by an algae that flourishes once the weather starts to warm a bit. Still mid 20 celsius down here. Still enjoying the last few weeks summer Barbies and Beer.

20 cels.? Summer! Vancouver has 14 cels. I just heard while watching Olympics. So Zeds cherry blossom may give it a first try.

Yes it really is cherry trees starting to bloom. Crocuses are in full bloom and the daffs won't be too long.

And I saw a camellia starting to bloom today.

The chipmunk has started raising his little head up above the snow. And Ithaca is having its first outdoor festival, the annual Chili Cook-off. Yum!!

Amazing that crocus are up on British Columbia, while so far
south here, we are still in temps in the single digits F.
With all the ice and snow on the ground the temps have
a terrible time warming. But BC has had really warm weather
as all reports on the Olympics tell us.
But as someone said above, the Cardinals do appear to be
gettin redder; even the females.

Hmmm.
Early cherry blossoms and crocuses are one thing but I saw rhododendrons in bloom today. That's just silly!

When you see Michaelmas daisies in February, then you can start worrying.

I am green with envy, the temp here now is 5 deg.F.

we have about 18" of fresh snow, and more coming down.

hi, Jackie!!!

Great for the ski - runs and those who love the sport.
Too flat here, just some run-of-the-mill hills.

and sadly, those that can afford it... :¬ (

I had not given thought to that, considering where I live,
but I presume it is costly, and out of reach for peons like me.

Update on spring? We have it reversed. All's is a month late. I see Vancouver every day but the artificial snowy part of it. Only blackbird is on scedule. Sitting on the windowsill in the morning, making reservations for the backyard food court.

Backyard food court? Sounds like you've made use of a new
term! Cute. My back yard food court is eating me out of
house and home. Still up to 20 inches of ice all over, and
the temps have been close to 0 all week during the night.
Did see geese flying north the other day, however. Only one
"V" so far, but that is better than nothing.

Whistler or Blackcomb one day pass is $93 this year. $93!!

Still winter. A couple tulips poked through before rabbits
ate them. Am now at war with the critters.

Snow forecast for the weekend again. Global warming????
El Nino???
Armegeddon? Snowmageddon??

First backyard bumble bee! If this is not spring...



Then what will it be... ( 18 fahrenheit degree)

Absolutely beautiful. Deep purple crocus. I have a light
lavender one in bloom. Well, yesterday it was in bloom, closed
up tight today: snowing again. Beautiful picture.

Yesterday just before dark I spotted the first two bats. Never before I saw them this early as they usually only come after a real hot summer's day.

I have some tulips and now hyacinth poking through, but the
temps were below freezing last night. It's taking a slow
entry, this year's Spring, is.

"I sawr a behd turday."

My buddy blackbird and it's spring all over the place now.

"I sawr a behd turday."

Hmm, /ʔaɪsɔːɹəbɜːd/. I understand the intrusive-r pronunciation up to the final word. Is the r intrusive, as Sir Michael Redgrave used to admonish his moppets not to pronounce, or does it somehow represent the schwa of the usual pronunciation of today /tə'deɪ/. I understand the intrusive-r to occur at the end of syllables when the next syllable starts with a vowel. YMMV.

OTOH, lovely Amsel (Turdus merula), though.

That line was stolen from olly, I could never make it myself.
I understand some blackbird schwa though. One piercing stretched sound that means "bring food", one lower chockle sound that means "come on Damsel Amsel here is food, and one hell of a cacophony that means " hell!!!,cats! magpies! Flemish jays, crows! All hands aboard!"

The only sense I could make out of the ur in turday was a non-rhotic representation of some vowel I couldn't even begin to think how to represent. The eh in behd was my attempt that I probably shouldn't have begun to think how to represent for some other non-rhotic vowel.

The only sense I could make out of the ur in turday was a non-rhotic representation of some vowel I couldn't even begin to think how to represent. The eh in behd was my attempt that I probably shouldn't have begun to think how to represent for some other non-rhotic vowel.

Yep, I am so totally convinced. Let's throw the IPA and those annoying linguists off the boards and perhaps off the planet. We can just use English spelling to represent all the sounds of all languages. Besides, in a few years everybody will be speaking English anyway. And that with a non-UK, non-US accent.

Thou mayst keep on arguing about urs and thurs, I will stick to the turdus merula. Pronounced just like you see it. Turdus Meroolah.

Turdus Meroolah.

You can stick with the Amsel, but most folks around these parts (Silicon Valley and environs) would pronounce the two words as /'tɝdəs 'mɛɹələ/.

/'tɝdəs 'mɛɹələ/ The bird agrees with that completely as long as he gets his bits of bread.

reported

Wow, it's my first post on this forum , Test

Welcome

Don't eat pink snow.It may cause sever throat infection thus lead to death.Weather is getting warm little bit.