Day 18.041: Birds looking to the right

After missing last week for a combination of reasons, both Exile #2 and I were able to join the nature walk this morning. The sun was well above the horizon by the time we gathered at 7 am - an experience we've not had in a while - but it was still quite cold - single digits in °F or about -15 °C.

We are starting to see more birds and a greater variety, but the cold still makes photography a challenge. Here are some of the birds we saw that I was able to capture:

A couple of weeks ago we marveled at how many fruit were still untouched on this crab apple tree. Today many had gone and we watched this robin eat a few more. I can only imagine that they are not particularly tasty, but have now become the best option available while the ground is under a couple of feet of snow.

We heard this dark-eyed junco singing his tinkling-bell song (something like the second one on this page)

We watched several house finches moving between these bushes and wreaths on a wall under an open-sided structure. We were not able to identify what they were doing there, but they moved back and forth several times.

Day 18.040: Snow where to sit down

In case anyone was wondering what several weeks of fairly minor snowstorms with little in the way of melting but plenty of compression and a bit of sublimation results in on the ground,,;

Picnic table at work - the snow is up to the level of the integrated seats 

 Of course, in places where it has been piled up, we have a lot more.

Day 18.039: FeederWatch x StormWatch

Here are some bird pictures from a Sunday and Monday that were mostly defined by clearing snow and recovering from clearing snow.

Mourning dove unhelpfully on top of the feeder

Downy woodpecker showing both his small beak and black spots on the outer tail feathers (both distinctive vs the hairy woodpecker)

What did the crow say to the other crow?

Day 18.038: Storm out

I had several inches of snow to move again this morning. Although we had some sleet (ice pellets) mixed in, the majority of the precipitation fell as snow and we had no noticeable freezing rain. All told, the storm dropped about ten inches of snow here on top of what we already had from weeks of storm after storm. Exile #3 noticed what looked like a weird optical illusion around the rim of the birdbath - in fact she was just seeing the water underneath the ice-rim which appeared to be levitating slightly.  Here’s a video to try to capture the effect. 

It has - as predicted- been rather windy all day today and we’re glad that the trees don’t have the extra stress of a layer of ice while they are dealing with the wind.

Day 18.037: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #513

Exile #2 writes...

The snow started last night and has been coming down all day. We, along with most others, hunkered down and kept off the roads. There is still opportunity for more chaos with freezing rain tonight, followed by high winds tomorrow but fortunately, tomorrow is a public holiday so none of us has to go anywhere. We decided to brighten our evening with a virtual trip to the theatre, and gathered to watch Waitress, the Musical, which was fantastic and a suitably cosy way to spend the evening together.

Our front steps after the second round of snow clearing today

Day 18.036: Pre-snow crows

As I write this, we have a new coating of snow which is expected to turn into several inches - probably mixed with some ice by the end of the day tomorrow (Sunday). Earlier, we took advantage of the calmer weather to take a walk at the cemetery and see what we could see to add to the Great Backyard Bird Count.

Our final tally was not bad, but the main event were the crows. There was a large group gathering noisily at the top of a few trees and then moving - mostly en masse - to another tree top. Twice I counted 34, so I suspect there were probably 40 or more.

Some of the crows

A bluebird on a bare branch

Day 18.035: Glazed

The messy storm has put a shiny coat of ice on top of the snow-pack. The next storm will probably bring another layer of snow and likely another layer of ice on top. In the meantime, here’s some ice in more interesting formation today just outside our front door.