Signs Of Impending Doom

Unusual weather patterns…odd behavior exhibited by animals…should we be concerned about the coming apocalypse? I wouldn’t start hoarding can goods yet, but I would admit that things have been pretty strange in Upstate New York for the last few months. Temperatures have been fluctuating between 50°F (to sometimes almost 60°F) to down below freezing. Most shallow parts of Lake Ontario have only been frozen for a few days at a time before thawing completely and instead of snow, it has been what seems like a continuous downpour for months. A large wedge of swans (up around 30) were floating around on Sandy Pond in the middle of January, while what looked like a million crows filled the sky every night at dusk over Watertown and last week a huge gaggle of snow geese were taking refuge in fields all along route 3. Yesterday on the way home I encountered a blizzard with such low visibility I actually hung up my cell phone to concentrate on driving. Well that’s not true, I hung up to take photos with my phone, but you didn’t hear that from me. After 5 minutes, the sky parted and left the right side of the road glittering under blue sky and sunshine while the left continued to be hammered with large fluffy flakes. As frightening as an ancient prediction of armageddon can be, weird weather and birds actin’ a fool make for some pretty fabulous photo opportunities.