Continuing cool

This unseasonably cool weather continues....but despite that, spring continues to progress...

 walking can be risky business as dark storm clouds move around, you never know if it is going to rain, hail or snow!

you can tell from this Dark-eyed junco's hairdo, that it is also very windy pretty much all the time.

even so the visitors you'd expect right now, are here, like the Yellow-rump Warblers....unfortunately this is the best photo I've managed so far.

lots of these little Ruby-crowned Kinglets as well...

 a couple of Townsend's Solitaire as well....again, unfortunately, not great photos.

Yesterday's walk....

there were a pair of Common Loon (only one in this photo) and a pair of Canada Geese....what this photo shows is just how big loon actually are!

there were also a pair of Greater Yellowlegs Sandpipers on the beach, which is slowly disappearing as water levels continue to rise, albeit very slowly.

and just to prove that yes, it really is spring....a Mourning Cloak Butterfly...

and if you needed proof of the important role the dandelions play in supplying food for the bees....this picture pretty much says it all.  Dandelion patches have been humming!  Speaking of 'humming', the lack of Rufous Hummingbirds is a little alarming.  Very few are being seen.

We are seeing Turkey Vultures....Osprey should be showing up soon.

this is the time of year when there are masses of Dark-eyed junco and occasionally you find one of these Leucistic or piebald ones.

For a number of reasons, we didn't even get for a walk today, but this was yesterday, probably one of the last walks along the beach.....once weather starts to warm, water levels will really start to rise.