Out of the cabin

I didn’t intend to be away from blogging for this long but weather and holidays and internet connections are variable and don’t always cooperate with my plans.

Since I’ve been offline, I’ve had warm weather, an ice storm, rain, high winds and even a sunny day. During the ice storm, I had the traditional mid-winter "carpet" of juncos on my deck. I counted about 50, but the little devils move around too much to get a completely accurate count. In any event, that’s a lot of juncos on a small deck.

The rain did in much of the snow and caused high water, though I don’t think it was quite high enough to be described as flooding. What the rain didn’t ruin, temperatures in the mid-40’s on one day did. One day of warm temperatures was enough to bring turkey vultures back into the sky over the forest, though wasn’t warm enough to bring the black vultures. Unless I really get a thaw, I probably won’t see them again until February.

So far no winter finches are plying my feeders, nor the feeders of anyone else I know down here. That isn’t really a surprise. The winter finches are pretty irruptive and it’s rare to get them two years in a row. Still, I always hope they will visit. Wild turkeys also came out of the woods—nearly a dozen of them yesterday morning.

As I haven’t mentioned any animals, you may safely assume that I haven’t seen any of those—except for the ever-present squirrels. I did walk the perimeter of my little cabin yesterday, searching for prints and didn’t find any—not even the deer. I suspect they are bedded down somewhere and not moving around too much. All’s quiet now and the internet connection, such as it is, is restored.