2021 - a clean slate

For a few days the weather guessers have been telling us to expect snow and freezing rain this past Wednesday. By the time it got closer to Wednesday, the nasty weather had been pushed forward to Thursday - then to Friday. As it turned out, AFAIK, the rain/freezing rain that was to precede and proceed the snow and was to have started at around Midnight last night did not show up. When I trudged through the accumulated snow and blowing snow to retrieve our morning paper, there was no sign of slipperiness as I expected from a coating of ice. But...the world from our house, looks fresh and clean with its white coating. It is still snowing, but only half-heartedly with tiny flakes. The sun has been trying to peek out for the past hour. I've already had my first bowl of snow ice cream - for breakfast. (I'll take a small break, here.)

The first photo was taken at about 8am (the camera's date/time was off) at which time I measured a bit over 4 inches of snow on the patio table. At about 11:30am, I measured 5.5 inches. The sun came out just before noon and the snow had quit. By hovering your cursor over a photo you may reveal the caption to each photo.

When the weather turns bad, we always have a bountiful number of birds at our feeders. This morning, we've had European starlings (ugh!), a passel of slate-colored juncos (with one pink-sided amongst them), a handful of house finches, a like number of American gold finches, a few tufted titmice, one white-breasted nuthatch, one red-bellied woodpecker, a couple of downy woodpeckers, and a female cardinal - that I recall.

Please note the blue feeder in the above two photos. I have a hook on a pole that I use to retrieve/replace feeders through one or the other of the living room windows during weather such as this. A bit after these photos were taken, I tried to retrieve the blue feeder for re-filling. Unfortunately, I used one hand/arm in the process and fumbled the feeder when I took its full weight at the end of my pole, dumping it off onto the ground. I replaced it with another tube-type feeder rather than going out and trampling about in the snow. The snow looks better without my footprints.

Added at 3:33pm - No more ice cream

It warmed up, quickly, once the sun came out. About half of the snow has already melted. What is left wouldn't be fit for snow ice cream. It is 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Comments

[bogie]

You got more snow out of that system than I got last night; 2" of white stuff and now it's freezing drizzle/mist. Was going to start shoveling / sweeping the ramp, but decided to wait and let the snow soak in the icy stuff.

I can relate to not wanting to go pick up feeders thru the snow. The squirrels have taken to dumping the platform feeder that is on the railing and sometimes it goes over the opposite side from the porch. I don't know why they do this, and they have to work at it as the platform feeder is designed with extensions that hang down over the railing cap.

Either way irritates me as I either have seed all over the porch, or have to go retrieve the feeder (which means I have to walk 40' down the ramp, 40' to where the feeder lands, then back - oh the exhaustion it creates :)

[Joared]

Such a pristine sight -- love your photos. The snow on the mountain peaks above me has been lovely to view here in SoCal. Your photos remind me of our feeders and visiting birds plus invading squirrels outside our window when the snow was deep and the temperatures freezing or below in Central Ohio when we lived there years ago.

[Cop Car]

Bogie--Thanks for the chuckle. You surely wouldn't want to expend effort. Save that for shoveling/blowing snow. I should think that the system that gave us snow would be reaching you about now. Wichita actually measured 6.6" at the airport, yesterday. Western Kansas was spared.

I was outside four times, yesterday, but not enough to bother donning a jacket. Squirrels! They used to be a huge problem at our bird feeders - even gnawing through the wire mesh (although, in taking down feeders by unscrewing the nuts from the bolts, they had help from the masked bandits). We have cut our number of bird feeders in half, having removed the 4x4 posts from which they had previously hung at the then-edge of the woods. We noticed that, after our replacing the back porch/deck and installing metal railings where the cedar railings had been, the squirrels found it difficult to access the feeders that are shown in the photos, above. Eventually, the squirrels gave up. I've not seen a squirrel try to access a bird feeder in at least a year.

Joared--There is a definite difference between Ohio and Southern California - especially if you were in the lake effect portion of Ohio. California is a beautiful state. I would never have been a surfer girl; but, I would have enjoyed living there. My brief 1980s assignments in SoCal and NoCal were surely enjoyable. Had I been born rich instead of good looking, I might have taken up one of the offers for permanent employment out there. In fact, at one point, I seriously considered buying property near Horse Thief Lodge outside Tehachapi.

[bogie]

I think that system is hitting us later today or tonight.

[Cop Car]

Good luck, Bogie; although, you should be all limbered up for the exercise. (Besides, you may receive less from this system than from the previous one.)

[Liz Hinds]

You do have some interesting birds. Ours tend to be tits or robins. And I am envious of your snow. I wouldn't want a lot of it but now, as we're in lockdown, it would be pretty.

[Joared]

You made your choice -- you can't be rich and good-looking -- it's one or the other! Pity those who are neither -- all they may get is a wonderful life.

[Cop Car]

Liz--Yes, we share some very similar/identical species of birds; but, we surely see different ones. Later the day of the posting, I spotted a yellow-breasted sapsucker. I don't believe that you see that particular woodpecker.

Joared--That "good looking instead of (whatever)" was something my mother always said when she wanted to be funny. I didn't fall far from the tree.