There are usually many more Ring-billed Gulls than Herring Gulls so it is always a pleasure to see a Herring Gull up close as we did on this foggy, 2 degree morning. Herring Gulls have flesh-coloured legs and feet as opposed to Ring-billed Gulls which are smaller and show yellow feet and legs.

Species list: trumpeter swan, Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, bufflehead, herring gull,  ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, house sparrow, northern cardinal, dark-eyed junco.  (13 species)

Some botany:

Park scenes:

This morning’s group:

NATURE POETRY

Chill airs and wintry winds! my ear
Has grown familiar with your song;
I hear it in the opening year,
I listen, and it cheers me long.      – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82)

Miles Hearn