Snow-capped daffodil

Saturday

We awoke this morning to snowfall - it didn't last very long - just long enough to cover the grass and put little caps of snow on the daffodils. We had to go out to the hardware store for a few things after breakfast, and by the time we were heading back home, the clouds were beginning to break up, and it actually developed into quite a sunny afternoon, though still quite cold. Roger did a final bit of painting after lunch, then we got out to enjoy the sunshine for a while and get some exercise. We decided to go somewhere new - Fernald Preserve, which I had seen from several Cincinnati Birders posts is a good spot for bird watching. The Fernald Preserve is a former nuclear production facility located in a rural area northwest of Cincinnati. Production stopped in July 1989 and the massive job of cleaning up the site began, overseen by the Ohio and U.S. Environmental protection agencies. The Fernald Preserve is now a green space preserve, with wetlands, ponds, prairies and forest areas, created based upon original land surveys and post excavation topographies. There is a visitor centre detailing the history of the site, and a very friendly and helpful lady at the reception desk was happy to talk about the place - she had been working there for twenty years, initially involved in the clean-up operation. It did indeed turn out to be a great place for bird-watching - plenty of waterfowl on the ponds. Unfortunately they kept their distance, so even with binoculars it was hard for me to identify some of them, not being terribly knowledgeable. One which seemed particularly numerous was the ring-necked duck. We shall definitely be returning in the near future!