The Usual Suspects (Visitors at my feeder!)

Every morning just before the sun rises, I go out and load my feeders up with a handful of peanuts, chickadee mix, and finch mix, toss corn out on the grass area across the way to distract the squirrels, and put a little more seed on the floor for the doves.  Some days we have dozens of birds, all of which ignore the grey squirrels sniffing and nomming corn bits.  Then the red squirrels come along and mass chaos ensues in the squirrel drama department...

Birds that stay for winter:
Titmice - we get as many as 8
Blue Jays - we get as many as 10 x.x
Cardinals - 2 mated pairs plus a baby or two
Assorted Sparrows (European, American Tree, White-crowned, Chipping, House) - 10-25
Mourning Doves - we get 6-8, they like to sit in my platform style feeder now so they're not on the ground LOL
House Finches - 2-4
Chickadees!!!! 4-12, they're insanely adorable...
White and/or Red-breasted Nuthatches - there's dozens all up and down the pine trees and the ROOF of all places, all morning.
Goldfinches - 1-6 on the thistle feeders.  Some have taken to sitting in the platform feeder, too!
Sharp-shinned Hawk! - Only one so far...went after the sparrows.
Downy Woodpeckers - 1-2
Golden-fronted Woodpecker or a Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker 1

Only show up during winter:
Dark-eyed Junco - we get as many as 8, kinda territorial
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1-2

Holy Fallen Tree Limbs, Batman!

WHOA.  That sums up my reaction this morning when I peered with bleary eyes out the bathroom window.

What is that, you ask?  Why, that was the limb of the tree I was photographing last night!  Actually, I was photographing UNDER that limb, more precisely.

Not one, but TWO limbs fell due to the weight of the snow, in fact, one right atop the other.  I'm guessing that the weight of the upper limb crashing into the lower limb did the lower limb in, however.  I'm so incredibly sad, because I loved the bushy "skirt" that lower branch in particular made.  I like to use the shaggy tree limbs as blinds when I try to take pictures of birds, also. 

These two photos were taken before the limbs' demises...So sad.  QQ.  I wish I could tape his poor limbs back on....but I don't think it would regrow.  Hubby was only able to move one of the enormous limbs, which were nearly as long as my car.  The other was too heavy to move.  I couldn't help, because my back and shoulders are already torn up and strained from shoveling.

My magnolia tree, Mikari, looks rather splendid in the snow!  The shots with longer exposure times turn out so dramatic!  As long as I don't wiggle...

These are all taken with the (un)"natural" street lamps casting an amber glow over the scenery.

The world is such an ethereal place at 3am.  I'm not certain what the blue glow is, but it's either the moonlight or someone's house illuminating the road down there.

This shot of a car driving up the road reminds me of one of my favourite Moonspell songs, Nocturna.  We live right on the crest of a hill before it grades downwards towards the lake.  It was really amusing to see people with their summer tires on in December trying to get enough traction to make it up this hill.  There was one guy in a Corvette with drag racing wheels on.  He was basically moving at six inches a minute all the way up - it was ridiculous.

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but this is Cicada Cottage :)  This is where the most cicadas seem to emerge from during summer.  It's an enormous, beautiful tree, too.

You know how I said we were going to get a lot of snow, right?  Well....this is a snowshot from this morning!  If you're wondering how I got most of these shots, it's because I was also using an umbrella to shield my lense and camera from the flying snow.  I had my tripod, but my nightvision is awful, so please bear with my blurry shots...I can't always tell when I'm in focus when it's dark out.  It's a different world at night...so beautiful.

I keep these cute little lantern lights out pretty much all year...the only problem I have is that you have to turn the inside foyer light on for one side and the street lamp light on for the other side.  They're on separate circuits, so it's kind of annoying.

I was also pissed off, because yesterday, someone (probably the snowplow) hit our mailbox post and knocked out mailbox partially off of it.  Well, this morning, when I peeked out of the window, i also noticed our mailbox had become completely detached from the post and was sinking into the snow.  We didn't get any mail today, so I'm not certain if it's because we didn't have any mail, or if it was because our maillady is holding it for us due to our lack of mailbox.

Arrrrrrrrrr............!!!!!!  And yes, that is a monkey riding a rocketship on our mailbox... :)

Bird Feeder Adventures in the Snow

I wake up every morning and stand at the kitchen sink to see which birds are at the bird feeders!  Those poor brave birdie souls weather some of the worst snow storms I've ever seen!  They perch on the freezing little metal poles poked through the thistle seed feeder while the wind blows the darn thing around like a windsock.  When it's too windy, they hide in the berry bush in front of our kitchen sink window until it clears up a bit.

I say the weather in Rochester is manic.  One day, it's 75F (23C) with full sun, the next day, it's 45F (7C) and pouring rain.  Winters are no exception!  There were a few weeks through November and December which were around the 60's and 70's, with only a few days that dropped below the 40's.  We barely had any snow left on the ground when Christmas rolled around - and in fact, on Christmas day, it was pouring rain!  We had to drive over to Lauren's house, because walking through the wooded area between our houses with gifts and platters of food was too hazardous.  We waited one week for this massive storm we kept hearing about to hit us, but nothing!  Well, we're sure in it now!  Geeeez.  We got about three feet, it just looks like less, because we're on top of a hill and the snow keeps getting blown off parts of it.

Lo and behold...my giant kitty snow sculpture!  Cars kept driving by to stare at me as I made it.

My husband poked his head out to check on me, because I hadn't come in for a long time.  I originally set out to recover one of our Zen Cat cups that our father bought for us last Christmas.  I guess a construction worker left it outside this summer, and I hadn't been out to see it till now.  Well, I got distracted with shoveling my way through snow, because it's up to my knees.  I saw how much snow there was in the pile I'd made and decided to make a snow kitty.  I'm just ADHD like that.  I really felt motivated to be outside and playing around in the snow today!

By the time I was finished, I couldn't feel my body from the waist down, so I thawed out a little inside.

 

When I could feel my legs again, I went back out and shoveled my way to the birdfeeders.  Unfortunately, the design of two of my lantern-style feeders, while gorgeous, have a lot of ventilation holes for rain and snow to get into.  Snow was packed into the feeders, so I took them down along with the thistle seed feeder, and brought them inside the garage.  I refilled the thistle seed feeder and hung it up right away, because the goldfinches love and adore it.  Every perch is occupied when it's breakfast time, it's just amazing!  We have a good flock of goldfinches and house finches!  I unscrewed everything, took the lids off, scooped the snow out, filled the feeders up, then I took plastic grocery bags and covered up the areas the snow was being blown in before putting everything back together.  After trimming off the excess bag, I hung the feeders back up again.

I was really excited to put my brand new Sky Cafe feeder out! (http://www.thenaturesbarn.com/images/feeders%20sky%20cafe.jpg)  My husband took me out yesterday to the bird house store on Monroe, and we wound up coming home with a bunch of goodies.  I picked up a couple small books on bird feeding, nesting, and cardinals, as well as a pole stand to put the Sky Cafe atop, 5 lbs of special chickadee food, cardinal-shaped cookie cutters, a nesting box with a chickadee-sized portal adjustment (it was a box for nuthatches, so the opening was a little too big), and some tasty suet.  Mmmm, suet.  It's a really great store, and the people were all very helpful and friendly!  They even have a shop kitty, which is something I love!  He's not the friendliest cat in the world, but he does come over to say hello, at least.

Peek around the corner, and what do I see?

It's Mr. Cardinal!!!  He's scoping out the new feeder, which is very different looking...but I know he sees all that tasty, delicious birdseed in there!  It's actually the chickadee food, but there are tons of black sunflower seeds, peanuts, sunflower chips, and other delicious, tasty things I'm sure he'll enjoy.  I have something for everyone there - chickadee mix in the Sky Cafe, generic songbird mix in the lantern feeder, and a thistle seed feeder for the goldfinches!

During the summer, Lauren also gave me a suet feeder with a squirrel baffle and a shepherd's hook, which I had lain on the ground to install when I had time.  Well, I never quite had time to set it up, so it was buried under all the snow.  Luckily for me, I'm usually pretty good at remembering where things are, so I was able to dig my way through the thigh-high snow to the approximate area I thought the suet feeders might be.  Imagine my joy and delight when I uncovered the suet cage!  I also retrieved the Zen Kitty cup while I was out there.  With a fresh batch of peanut suet loaded in, I stuck it into the bushes in front of the kitchen sink (and got snow down both my boots, arg.

I would like to get a heated bird bath next, though I'm not sure we have an outlet outside the house close to the feeders.