My Birds Not Of A Feather Flock Together In The Texas Snow

What you are looking at here is that which I saw via my living room window a few minutes ago when I attempted to take a picture of the big flakes of snow which were then falling.

My pet birds show up clearly, but the snowflakes, not so much, well, not at all.

The flakes began to fall about an hour ago.

The flakes eventually morphed from being little pinspots of powder to full grown flakes. With the outer world chilled to 20 degrees nothing frozen that falls to the ground is melting.

So far not enough flakes have fallen to render the outer world to be a white winter wonderland. Instead it just looks real cold.

There are dozens upon dozens of birds of various feathers living in the trees and bushes which surround my abode. I figured they might be hungry, what with the frigidity making their regular foraging difficult. So, I opened a bird feed buffet on my patio deck. The birds seem to like everything on the buffet except for the chicken skin.

So far not enough snow has fallen to accumulate to a depth deep enough to warrant locating my cross country skis or my sled.

I imagine if sufficient snow accumulates Mount Wichita becomes a local sliding mecca.

I suspect before winter goes away for the year I will find out if Mount Wichita does become a regional sliding mecca when conditions warrant such....

Aerobic Yoga Followed By Power Walking Wichita Falls Circle Trail North With Birds

The first day of October and day two of my new fall regimen of excessive power walking and aerobic yoga.

Yesterday I walked fast to the south, hoofing the Circle Trail all the way to Lake Wichita and back to my abode.

Today I headed north on the Circle Trail, hoofing it all the way to the north end of Hamilton Park and then back to my abode.

Somewhere around six miles of hoofing it.

It is the suddenly cool temperatures which makes walking the Circle Trail appealing. When the air is HOT, with little wind and no shade, the Circle Trail is not appealing for a middle of the day walk. When it is HOT I need some shade and a breeze blowing over a cooling body of water.

I was barely into the first mile of power walking when I saw that which you see above. A golfer hunting for his ball. I saw dozens of white golf carts rolling around the Weeks Park Golf Course, with only one bad golf ball hitter chasing his ball to the banks of Holliday Creek.

Acquaintances from the Pacific Northwest who look at my blog at time or two have verbalized surprise regarding how green the topography appears to be in what they had always thought was dusty, brown, desert covered Texas.

Geographically ignorant Yankees.

In many way at many times in the year much of Texas is much greener than the Evergreen State, particularly when the western half of Washington is in drought mode, which it was the last  time I flew up north.

When I hoof the Circle Trail there is no need to carry a water bottle with me.

No need to carry a water bottle because there are water fountains along the Circle Trail. One steps on a pedal on the ground and soon cool water burbles forth.

Below is the most disturbing thing I saw today, looking like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Birds.

I have no idea why these birds were congregating on this one roof of a large apartment complex near Weeks Access Road and Midwestern Boulevard. I took the above picture when I was heading north. The birds were still there an hour later when I was heading south.

This bird behavior seems disturbing to me. I would not want to be living in the apartment below.

Tomorrow for my power walk I think I will roll my mechanical wheels to the north parking lot at Hamilton Park and walk the Circle Trail north from there.

Birds Flying North For The Winter With Incoming Freezing Rain In Fort Worth

I do not know if it is another sign of Mother Nature running amok, or what, but this morning, while I was doing my usual pool/hot tub routine, I saw 4 large herds of birds flying in formation overhead.

Three of the four formations were flying north, while the fourth confused formation was flying west.

In the Fall it is quite common to see large formations of birds of all sizes flying south, to the birding zone of South Texas or into Mexico.

I do not recollect seeing big formations of birds flying north this early. Something seems amiss.

Did the birds miss the news that Winter is not over? And that the forecast for Friday is snow, again, in North Texas. What are all these birds going to do as they fly over Oklahoma or Kansas and realize this is way too cold? Do they make a U-Turn and head back to South Texas?

I just went to get the Fort Worth forecast, for any of you birds reading this, and I see our Friday forecast has been changed from snow to freezing rain & freezing drizzle. I'm not sure what the difference is. I am not a big fan of freezing rain or drizzle. I prefer my rain to be thawed and lukewarm.

East Fort Worth Wal-Mart Taken Over By Birds

I think a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds may be being filmed down at my local neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter.

As I drove towards Wal-Mart I made note of a large glowing object in the late in the day sky. I wondered if this could possibly be the "Special Star" I blogged about earlier today, that is supposed to herald the second coming of Buddha, known as Maitreya.

As I pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot it did look like something supernatural was happening. I have never seen so many birds in one location. I am talking thousands of birds.

Birds in the air, in trees, lining the roof of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. Birds on cars, one huge group of maybe 1000 standing on an open spot til spooked, causing a mad chain reaction. After the mad chain reaction the birds re-roost til re-stirred.

People were running into Wal-Mart like they were in The Birds, hands over head for protection.

The birds made a cacophony of noise that added to the surreal scene. Why do these birds hang out at a busy with humans and cars zone? Why not go to a nearby park like Village Creek Natural Historic Area?

I must turn on CNN now and see if Maitreya is having that promised televised news conference to announce his coming to America along with his bright star.

And, apparently huge herds of birds.