Monday, February 15, 2010

Snow news

Snow continues to dominate my own personal headlines here on Roundtop Mtn. Not much has melted, and shoveling continues, though at a slower pace. I’m tired of shoveling. Tonight, more snow, if not a large amount. I’m trying to decide if several inches of new snow will mean nothing or if it will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. At this point, I can’t decide.

Today, I am posting some more snow photos. Snow photos are all I have and are all I am likely to have for some time.

Apparently, I was lucky to get off the mountain on Thursday afternoon. My brother lives two townships over. Unlike me, he lives in a good-sized development, so isolation from a population center doesn’t apply to him. However, apparently the township snow plow(s) broke, and his end of the township wasn’t plowed out until late on Friday. Believe me, it’s a first for me to be plowed out before he is.

The snow is still drifting and sometimes comes close to closing the roads again. It’s not as bad as it was on Thursday and Friday but even yesterday drifting sometimes reduced the roads to a single lane. The second photo is my back deck.  The snow is nearly up to the railing on the left, and the stairs have disappeared.

I still haven’t seen any new bird species at my feeders. At this point, I’m going to assume new species will not be found at my feeders this winter. I am seeing some new configurations of the usual species, though. It is rare for me to have mourning doves at my feeders, though when the weather gets bad, I often have a pair of them. That pattern continued until yesterday when 5 showed up—a record. The male northern cardinal has been singing all winter—even the snowstorms haven’t slowed him down. This morning he was answered by one of the Carolina wrens, and they echoed each other back and forth for a bit.

Yesterday, a female house finch put on a pathetic performance. My tube feeder has a higher and lower set of feeding perches and was empty down to the higher set of perches. The chickadees were able to sit on the top perch and dip down into the tube for a snack. The female house finch couldn’t fit herself on that perch and eat too, which frustrated her no end. She’d go to that perch, try to feed, eventually give up and return to the branch above it. After a few minutes she’d try the same thing again, apparently not smart enough to go to the lower perch where she could easily reach the food. I watched this for four or five attempts, then simply couldn’t stand it any longer and went outside to fill that feeder.

6 comments:

tiptoethruphylsgarden.blogspot.com said...

Your deck looks like mine.
The blizzard has brought the deer more close to me.I braved the drifts to take them down corn.
We have flocks of robins now,& I captured a pic of a mockingbird yesterday drumming holes into orange slices I placed on the feeder before the snow storms.But I`m afraid the snow may be here awhile,trying not to think of more snow on the way.phylliso

Cathy said...

Oh course the other bad part about all this snow, it has to melt away at one point. Which will raise the concern of flooding later on.

For me, I might be getting 3-5 of snow. At one point they were saying 4-8. I don't want that much. It's bad enough it's triggering a headache for me.

Another 3 would be plenty, just enough snow to give the kids another day of vacation.

My Aunt Jean who lives down somewhere in Virgina, has robins in her yard. They playing in the snow too.

So spring is coming, it's only 33 days away :)

Carolyn H said...

Squirrel: somehow blogger lost your comment--not sure how that one happened. my back deck is raised too, but only about 5 feet.

Carolyn H.

Carolyn H said...

Phylliso: no robins here yet but that's not unusual.

Carolyn H.

Carolyn H said...

Cathy: I'm a bit worried about flooding too, but I'm glad it's still February. I am likely to see several rounds of freezing and thawing before a final big thaw, and I hope that will reduce potential flooding. of couse, that all remains to be seen, but at least there's still a chance for slower melting.

Carolyn H

Grizz………… said...

We received 6–8 inches of new snow yesterday, another couple of inches last night…but our total for the month is still only 19-plus inches—nothing like the piles and piles you have. I'm still enjoying snow, and think these last two weeks are the best of the year so far; I might feel different if I were dealing with your amount.

I thought I had a new bird to add to my winter list…a glaucous gull. One has been seen several times on the river just upstream from the cottage. A lone gull appeared hereabouts yesterday. Usually, I see either herring or ring-billed gulls. I couldn't get a good look, and I'm not very good on gulls, but I've finally decided—having spotted some black at the tips of the folded wings—this is just a plain old herring gull and not the glaucous.