Early Springtime Around The Farm

One might say (and "one" often does) that winter lasted far too long this year, well into April, with cold, snow, ice and strong winds. The cows seemed to be getting rather accustomed to it all, though:

They learned to climb right inside their hay bale feeder to get at what they considered the better hay:

And indeed, their main job in life is eating:

As for me, I darn near put an eye out while spreading bedding hay on the barn floor. A stem poked me in the eye while I was shaking loose a brick of hay. It did not require a run to the emergency room but it did look rather like I'd been picking bar fights at night:

And little PeeWee continued to snooze through most of his days and nights:

In fact, all the dogs and cats specialized in snoozing. Both Seamus and Madeline gained far too much weight over the winter:

And speaking of sleeping pets:

And the aptly named Snoozey:

There have been small flocks of Snow Buntings in nearly every field, especially corn fields. But one day I returned on the tractor with newly purchased bedding hay to find them on my own fence line:

Snow Buntings are mysterious birds who breed in the high arctic and consider upstate New York a place to "stay warm" for the winter. But they're skittish and rarely give a person the chance to see them, except from a distance as they fly away. I stopped the tractor and used the zoom lens to capture these:

Snow Buntings are seen mostly in flight and often appear to be pure white, as if they're all albinos. They're not, though, having black wing tips and other markings:

I never got a close-up shot, but took this one off the internet to show you what beauties they are. I suppose they'll be leaving us for their northward migration very soon: