Last day in February

53 degrees F.  Sunny, perfectly blue sky.  Wind picking up...chance of snow over the weekend, slight here, but winter's hanging on.  More trees in bloom.  Someone mentioned to me yesterday, that one of the cherry trees in the Quad at the UW was sending out preliminary blossoms.  They are typically in full bloom the week of spring break, which is still three-weeks off.

Saw a couple of swallows plying the sky in the Fill at lunch.  White bellies, but other than that, no good id.  Guessing they are migrating, but seems early.  Saw a belted kingfisher fly over with the sun shining through it's wings. I think I read somewhere that they are only in the Fill when they are not breeding.  Other than that, the usual suspects: mallards, cormorants, grebes, buffleheads, a northern shoveler, Am. coots, wrens, Am. robins, sparrows, etc.

Will attempt to take wildlife pictures in March as a practice for the month.  We'll see how that goes.

Bird

While opening the conference-room blinds at work this morning, saw a long-legged bird hopping around the terrace.  It reminded me of a robin, but smaller.  Had spots on it's chest, short beak, black eye, reddish tail feathers.  I think it's a hermit thrush, Catharus guttatus, related to robins.  Originally, tried to look up wrens and chickadees, with no luck, but on a hunch tried thrushes, and voila.  It bopped around long enough and close enough for me to get a good look at it.

I read that they over-winter here (Puget Sound), though it says it's rare for them to be in yards. I've probably seen them before.

Chance of snow suddenly in the forecast for the weekend.  Winter ain't done yet, in spite of the trees blooming already.