Squirrel-proof Feeder? Hah.

This supposedly squirrel-proof set-up is far from that when there is more than a foot of snow on the ground. I missed getting a shot of this squirrel moments earlier, straddling the gap with one hind foot on the cone and one on the bottom of the tube feeder.

Hoarfrosty Morning

Here are some photos I took this morning, on Maple St. near Sibley School and down by the riverfront. In places, the frost is an inch thick.

Hoarfrost January 19 2010

Cats Watching "The Life of Birds"

I try not to put tons of cute cat photos here, but when I discovered that they loved watching "The Life of Birds" I felt that was entirely appropriate for this birdwatching blog.

Fascinated by a canvasback duck.

Yes, that owl has a small rodent in its mouth.

The short video below shows Orion interacting with the screen. The light and sound aren't very good.

House Finch at Feeder

I took this photo of a house finch at one of our feeders on either Friday or Saturday. The zoom on my camera is broken (one or the other of certain unnamed adolescent cats knocked the camera off the desk, alas), but I got this shot by holding the camera to one side of my binoculars -- a technique sometimes called binscoping or digibinning. Not bad for a photo taken through a window, and a better focus than I often get with the point-and-shoot!

See more bird photography at Bird Photography Weekly!

Intrepid Squirrel

A brave squirrel came face-to-face with our cats today, albeit with a pane of glass between them. He spent several minutes looking through our front window, in between athletic feats that enabled him to snack for a while at both of our birdfeeders.

What had been a supposedly squirrel-proof feeder set-up proved no match for Stalwart Squirrel, now that we have more than a foot of snow on the ground and a handy ornamental deer for a launching pad. We had some amusing sights of him sliding down the pole and slipping off the squirrel-cone, but I expect it was no laughing matter for a hungry squirrel. I certainly don't mind sharing the bird food under these conditions.

Christmas Snowstorm: Plop, drizzle, fizzle

Well, instead of another 8-10 inches of snow we got two or three inches of wet snow Thursday night and Friday morning, and a fair amount of drizzle and rain over the remainder of the day. The roads stayed mostly wet, though Dave did have a rather arduous drive on Highway 19 out to the interstate early yesterday morning to meet the rest of us at a family homestead in the south metro. We drove into St. Paul for delicious meals both Thursday evening and Friday afternoon and back home to Northfield in the early evening, the car thermometer reading between 37 and 34 degrees, with never a white-knuckle moment.

We dug out the very heavy wet snow from the driveway last night -- not much in inches, but a lot in weight -- but our muscles are becoming somewhat accustomed to this shoveling business lately and didn't complain too badly. (I asked my son, age 10, to help with the shoveling, but he had tossed his shovel down somewhere in the snow a couple of days ago and it was covered up and no longer to be found.) This morning, judging from the sounds made by the dog's feet when she went outside, everything has hardened to a crunchy crispness, so I'm glad we got the shoveling done.

Speaking of animals walking in the snow, on Thursday morning I found these tracks by our front door. Although I wish they were something wild and exotic, I must conclude* that they are tracks of a domestic cat. Ah well.


*Here is the animal track chart I've referred to before, provided by the Ohio DNR.

Christmas Snowstorm: Driveway Blues

A few more photos -- the pile at the end of the driveway after the first wave of snow. We worked for a couple of hours to get one side free of the heavy, packed snow (oh, our aching backs and elbows! -- and this was after someone had already cleared an opening several feet side on that side of the driveway for us early this morning) and get the mailbox clear enough for the mail truck to drive up to it. Then our neighbor who has a huge two-stage snowblower did the whole other side in about 10 minutes and promised to help with the next wave as well. We appreciate the neighborly kindness!

The snowplow heap was two to three feet deep. [Addendum: as you can perhaps see in this photo, the reason the piles are so high is because we live on a circle that gets completely cleared, so what ends up at the curb is generally much higher than you'd see on a straight road.]

The blade of the snow shovel is at least 10" high - maybe closer to 12". That's a heap o' snow!

Christmas Snowstorm: First Wave

Here are some photos taken around 8 a.m. Thursday, Christmas Eve, after the first wave of heavy snow overnight. Things are pretty calm right now, but more heavy snow is expected later today and into Christmas Day. Judging from the "stick the snow shovel into the snow on the driveway and measure it" method, we already got a good 8" or more since our snow showers began mid-afternoon yesterday. I haven't noticed a single bird yet. Some kind soul seems to have removed the worst of the bottom-of-the-driveway snowplow pile for us; we are truly grateful!

Chairs on the deck that we never got around to bringing in. They had some snow on from before, of course.

Young evergreen in picture-postcard mode.

Birdfeeders with ornamental deer below almost buried. For comparison, see snow levels on Sunday, below.