Everyone is talking about the weather no matter where they live, freezing cold in Florida, Floods in Brazil, Australia, NW-US, Mexico, California, cold in the Midwest and east, snow storms hitting the east coast for the fifth time this season and in the south for the third time this season ice and snow. It was a tad nippy here this morning 1/24 as the thermometer sat at –34, the coldest it’s been here in a long time. Tears froze on my face as I filled the bird feeders this morning. I didn’t try the hot water trick but I’m sure some did. Brother Bob said they had lake effect snow off Lake Champlain all day yesterday as a north wind blew over the open waters of the lake. Lake Erie has frozen over so Buffalo will be spared the rest of the winter from Lake effect, but Ontario is still open and it will keep churning it out.
This should make the ice rinks for the lake ice hockey games this weekend on Fourth Lake about as good as they could be. I sure wouldn’t have wanted to be standing around watching there on Sunday, as the wind at around zero would have cut you in half. Hoping for better weather for this weekends games.
Also this weekend is the Mike Norris Memorial Ice Fishing contest on Raquette Lake on Saturday the 29th. Cold doesn’t normally bother ice fishermen. This weekend I saw fishermen out on both Fourth and Seventh Lakes, burr!
I was out taking photos of the Cathedral Pines at the head of Seventh Lake and it didn’t take very long for the cold to eat up one of my camera batteries. It was neat to shoot them from the bottom up the trunk and see what they looked like. Mirnie Kashiwa wanted a photo of these and she is also looking for a nice photo of balance rock up on Bald Mountain if you might have one, give her a call.
My flock of Turkeys took to roosting in the trees right behind the house for the last couple of days. I thought it was that they would be close to the food supply come morning. Instead they flew across the pond and then had to walk back for their corn, not a very smart bird for sure. They see me put out the corn, then fly down and walk back a couple hours later. Yesterday they sat in the trees in the sun until eleven then sat on the other side of the pond in the sun, soaking up some of it’s warmth until afternoon before coming in. They seem to be doing the same this morning or maybe they are frozen to the branch they are sitting on.
Gail from Trenton called me yesterday about a flock of Robins and Cedar Waxwings she had feeding in her Crab Apple tree in her front yard. She also had another bird feeding there, which she couldn’t identify. She was going to send me a picture but I haven’t gotten it yet. With all the snow along the east coast you just never know what you might see at you feeder or on berry trees in your yard. Robins have been hanging around all winter in the Utica and Syracuse area for a few years now. They find open spring swamps where they find some food and then come to area yards where they find the Crab Apples, Mountain Ash or Sumac berries to feed on.
Speaking of birds as I do all the time, the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming up February 18-21. You can count birds at your feeder or in your yard or you can go for a hike in the woods and record the birds that you see and hear along the way. You can go on line to the GBBC website and get all the information. This is like the Christmas Count only held a different time of the year. This is also done nation wide and in Canada and Mexico. It shows trends of where the birds are spending the winter and if there is any wild food out there for them to eat. Around here you won’t find many birds away from feeders except for a few Woodpeckers and Chickadees, as there is little wild food available. It’s still nice to take a tramp in the woods on either snowshoes or skies as you just never know what you may find, maybe Moose tracks as they are around.
Common Redpolls in winter but that’s another story. See ya.
