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Snow Day Birdwatch

Teachers are weather-watchers, especially those in areas where it snows often enough to realistically hope for snow days. Many teachers become amateur meteorologists during the winter months, trying to figure out if that chance of snow the actual meteorologist mentioned in passing was real and if it would stick enough to get a day out of school. 

I also think the teachers are actually more excited than the students they teach when that magical name comes up on the TV (back in my day) or you get a text saying the wonderful words, "School is closed today due to weather conditions."

I was a teacher back in the day when you had to turn on the news and watch the ticker-tape parade of schools and businesses along the bottom of the screen. Every time the alphabet letter went past where my school should be (because all teachers think that their school should be out if there's even a chance of some snow sticking anytime in the school day or anywhere in the surrounding area), my disappointment increased. 

But I always kept looking... hoping... wishing for my school's name to join that glorious list.

And finally, this one day, it appeared. 

I always watched at least one more run. and sometimes two or three, to make sure that I hadn't hallucinated the name's appearance before I left the TV to wake up my daughter and tell her the good news.

Sometimes it even snowed enough to give us two days off! 

This story's featured photo was taken on one of those incredibly wonderful and somewhat rare two-day snow days.

Though still winter, it was close enough to spring to have a good variety of birds at my feeders. Because there was enough snow the first day to have a high suspicion of getting a second day off, I did something rare.

I put my to-do list aside and picked up my camera. Off and on throughout both days, I simply sat and watched the birds, sometimes shooting through the window and sometimes shooting in the backyard. 

One of the most interesting parts was watching the birds fight for territory. There was definitely a hierarchy... and it was fun trying to figure out what it was. 

Off and on throughout the two days while I watched the snow melt, I over a hundred photos of the birds while my teenage daughter did her own thing (as teenagers do). I also took photos of my cats watching the birds.

Over the years I taught, I had a good number of snow days. This was one of my favorites.

                                                      (All images by Tracy Riggs Frontz)





 


A selection of the images above are available to order as custom prints, fulfilled by a professional lab, at https://NovelPhotos.Instaproofs.com.

If you have any questions, email NovelPhotos@yahoo.com.

If you don’t have time to order today, feel free to take a business card and order later using the middle QR code. The photos will be under “Trussville Library Gallery.”

If you have any questions, email us at NovelPhotos@yahoo.com.

If you want any hand-signed, get in touch with us before ordering. We can direct you to a gallery that doesn't have our digital signatures on them and we can work out what works best for you to get the signature you want.

To order a signed copy of Tracy’s book: Behind the Lens of a Storyteller – My Journey as a Photographer/Writer, go to https://NovelPhotos.instaproofs.com/BehindtheLens Note that shipping is included – be sure to use the coupon code “SHIPPINGINCLUDED.”

Do you need a highly experienced, budget-friendly photographer for your family or business?

 Go to https://NovelPhotos.com to see our work. Use the “Contact Us” page or email us at NovelPhotos@yahoo.com to find out how we can meet your photography needs.

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