He is from Ilion and spent many years around Oswego before moving here, to South Florida. That was before I was born, but he's always going on about the "good land."

In point of fact, the snow isn't really a problem as far as getting out and driving is concerned. Our roads are generally down to bare, dry pavement. But to try to walk my dogs out back in 3 foot drifts is getting beyond my abilities!

We get a lot of hawks and falcons, but not many eagles. We also have a lot of egrets and cormorants. The egrets are usually alone and the cormorants in pairs, but one time we saw an egret migration and it was like something out of the opening to "The Lion King". There were hundreds and in groups of five to twenty at various altitudes. I've only seen that once, but it was amazing.

a ground level snow squall - I couldn't see much past the hood of the car, but there was blue sky straight up overhead. I heard all this honking overhead and glanced up to see - what else ? - a flock of snow geese headed north!

I was shocked and when I got home, double checked in my bird guide to find out that yes, indeed, they do migrate through here!

I was certain it would get hit and end up coming through my windshield like a frozen turkey. I think it was just drafting for kicks. It seemed to know the gig. Scared the SHIT out of me!!!

We have a humming bird that likes the mimosa tree outside our bathroom window (didn't know there was anything to eat in those). She's really cute.

I was sitting outside in the garden area and a catbird landed on my knee. It looked up with a "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" expression and flew off to the lilac bush - three feet away. We have bluebirds everywhere and I talk to them in their language. They love our garden because there's more than enough food for everyone. The catbirds mostly show up when the blueberries and strawberries are in season. Robins are a year-round constant and so are the finches. Our yard is a bird, bee, and butterfly sanctuary and we don't poison it like most of the other neighbors.

Dive straight for the windshield and throw their wings open for cheap thrills. Crazy birds!

But the games they play with vehicles are disturbing at the least. I'm pretty sure they do it for fun. If you live on a highway, what else is there to do? They can't play Uno or anything like that.