Wow! Thanks for sharing those.
Clearly, the heavens approve of your retirement.
This morning we saw a big flock of ducks go by. Nothing too surprising, but I did comment to my wife, “look at all those ducks.” Then another 20 or 30 went by, so I said, “here come some more.” Then, a river of ducks appeared. Thousands of ducks, just a few feet off the water, kept coming and coming, as far as the eye could see. It remind me of the stories of the buffalo in the old west.
That’s good to hear. I am looking for every sign of spring I can find after receiving 15" of snow this week. Today, I noticed the bush outside my bedroom window now has bright green stems on last year’s new wood. Yay!
Oh, and due to a warm day today, most of the snow has melted off the eagles’ nest. But more snow coming tonight and tomorrow.
Gorgeous!
Around here we’ve been having some winter irruptions. Several of them, probably tied to similar shitty conditions elsewhere. One has been of the oddball Lewis’s Woodpeckers, which I regret I did not make the trek to go see (family stuff have kept me pretty busy these past couple of months). But a couple of others have been closer to home. Like American Robins and Cedar Waxwings, whose usual winter flocks of one or two dozen have been bulked up to many dozens and in some areas hundreds at once. Not far from my front door:
I ride an eBike in a mostly rural area, and it’s the wild, wild west out here. There’s the dog that chases me until his chain pops him backwards (he has done this every time, every day, for 3 months) and the crow that remembers me from feeding him once. Whenever he sees me now, he lands close by looking for more.
But today I saw a dove flying in the corner of my eye and BAM, a hawk swoops down, grabs him, takes him to the top of a telephone pole and eats him. It happened in a flash, and the hawk didn’t make sound swooping down.
Strolling around the neighborhood and I noticed a small brown snake. It was inert but when I gently prodded it with a stick, it started moving. I took a photo and went along. When I came back ten minutes later, it was gone.
Ooh, that’s a pretty, pretty one! Do you know what kind it is?
Saw some strange things in nature this past weekend. Walking in our woods with the dogs, when Kizzy came running carrying this:
I told her to “drop it” (a very useful command) and she did. But wtf was it? I turned it over with a stick and saw:
My gf recognized it. It was a dog toy UFO from when we had a BarkBox subscription five or so years ago! One of the dogs must have carried it on a hike then dropped it.
Later, at the Roaring Run Trail, the dogs were sniffing around a stone wall. There are a few stone walls from back in the day when the Kiskiminetas River was used as a canal. Between stones I saw this:
A paper punch that I guess is part of a geocache. Returned to its hideyhole.
I think it’s DeKay’s brownsnake, but I’m not into reptiles.
That is my thought as well.
I’ve got a little skunk friend that sets off my doorbell camera most nights around 4am
Spring is in full swing here due to the temps being so warm this month - I fear that a rude awakening will be coming in the next 10 days or so and all the flowers that are blooming are going to freeze solid. 
We’ve got hordes of finches coming to the feeder and twittering around right now, and I saw a rather battered looking Eastern swallowtail feeding on the blossoms on the pear tree today.
I don’t know if I would describe myself as being into reptiles…but maybe. I do like to see (non-venomous) critters of all types in the wild, and snakes tend to be the ones for close encounters!
Today I watched a robin try to beat the crap out of its own reflection (in the garden shed window) - that’s a sure sign spring is pretty much here. European robins are delightful - as well as being highly territorial and thoroughly vicious.
I didn’t manage to video it, but I thought to myself, I bet someone has. Yep.
There were several videos on YouTube, and (so far as I could tell) one or two were American robins. So do they do this as well?
j
I’ve never noticed an American robin doing that, but male cardinals will fight themselves to the death in everything from windows to rear view mirrors on cars.
Here’s one of our finch horde in the pear tree today:
Many birds will in breeding season when they are amped up and defending a set territory. I had an acquaintance that used to garden for awhile with a pair of slightly rusting pruning shears that made a metallic chip noise every time she cut something. By sheer coincidence that is also the call sound of the California Towhee and she’d get a furious pair bouncing around her garden searching for the intruder. She eventually gave up and just bought new shears 
.
I once sat in my car watching an angry chickadee attack my driver’s side mirror.
Someone, somewhere wants those shears. 
j
I’ve seen chickadees fight reflections and house finches try to fight the reflection of goldfinches at the feeder. Greedy little guts. 
It appears our eagles have decided that two eggs are enough for this spring. The new male is very solicitous of his mate. When I was watching, I could hear a vehicle backing-up beep in the background and Mom was busy chittering at something. When I came back to look again just now, it appears the camera has been moved a bit higher in the neighboring tree. Probably a good move as the nest is much deeper this year.
Been there.