Pre-storm

Grey, bleak, cold, damp....... a storm on the way. I headed to the park along West 69th Street. Change that to Carbohydrate Alley. The starlings were feasting on found discards. Nobody goes hungry in this neighborhood. This is also why we have rats.

Once in the park it was clear that there was no terrorist in the west 69th street vicinity (hawk), because all the little birds and pigeons were busy looking for food out in the open. Had the hawk been around there would have been silence, nothing moving. I had peanuts in the shell and decided to try and attract blue jays. The whole gang showed up. I tossed down two nuts so that a couple of jays could get a nut each. I didn't figure on piggy blue jay grabbing both nuts.

You can only laugh while watching blue jays. Their technique is scream-grab-depart, all in one nano-second.

There was a downy woodpecker watching all the activity and finally a sweet, trusting chickadee joined the group. This was the most real winter activity I've seen in a while.

There will be more pictures blogged tomorrow morning. It was a fun three hours in the park. Snow began to fall as I left for home.

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