Finally Winter Arrives

Last night we received almost two inches of snow. Today it mostly melted. It was wet snow and weighted down the hellebores and camellias to the ground nearly. No harm was done.

As many of you might already know we have not really had a real winter here.

 First time we had ice in the rain chains!!

 This is the chair I sit in to watch the bees come and go at the hive. It did not take long for the snow to vanish here.

 This Helleborus foetidus  was featured last week on this blog it was 3 foot tall last week.

 These hellebores were featured last week on this blog, see what they looked like last week.

The mid morning the sun was shining and the snow was melting off the roof. The rain chains were lit in the sun asI took this video sideways. Took about an hour as I learned to use Imovie and flipped the movie over and uploaded it to YouTube.

Thanks to all of you that signed (and Tweeted) the petition for the EPA to do the right thing and not allow a pesticide that might be harming the bee populations in the USA. Better science is needed to make sure this stuff is safe for future generations of honey bees.

Pine Siskin and Pine Warbler!

Yesterday I managed to get several close up photos of a Pine Warbler as it visited the feeders and landed on the tree next to the feeders.

Feeder activity here is pretty high, I have estimated these numbers of birds at our feeders:
Northern Cardinal 6-8, Mourning Dove 3, Red-bellied Woodpecker 2, Downy Woodpecker 1, Tufted Titmouse 6-8, Dark-eyed Junco 50+ White-throated Sparrow 25, Song Sparrow 2, Chipping Sparrow 3, White-breasted Nuthatch 3,  Pine Warbler 1, Purple Finch 12-15 (big number for such a rare bird) Gold Finch 25-30, Pine Siskin 1(very rare here), Carolina Chicadee 8-10. Other birds seen around the house but not on the feeders Hairy Woodpecker,  Carolina Wren and a Red-shoulder Hawk was heard calling in the woods.

Our walk yesterday down the road landed us on a tall hedge with berries, the birds seen getting the berries were Cedar Waxwings 30+, Mockingbird, Bluejay and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Would be I did not bring my 400mm telephoto lens with me otherwise I'd gotten some decent Cedar Waxwing photos.

 Pine Warbler a solitary visitor to the feeders never see more than one of these at the feeders. Taken from our porch with my D20 and 400mm f5.6 lens hand held. Just about all the other warblers that visit here have flown south to warmer destinations.

 Female Purple Finch on a juniper limb in the snow.

 Carolina Chickadee, one of my favorite birds because they are checking everything out all the time.

American Goldfinch.

I 've never noticed that not far from our house there is several yards with pecan trees in them. Here is a group of pecan nuts covered in snow. Most of the pecans were still in the trees, I suspect this was a failed crop otherwise squirrels would have gotten them by now.

 Tree line at the edge of a field.

 An old barn in the snow

 The North Fork of the Little River

The North Fork of the Little River

Fourth Snow Event!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was real good, I believe everyone got what they wanted and we had prime rib, pork shoulder and lobster with dinner at the retirement home where Meg's parents live. Could not believe it was such a great dinner!

Late on Christmas it started snowing, by 11 pm when I went to bed we had 3/4 inches of snow. Right now my estimate would be 4 inches and it is still snowing!

The feeders were refilled about an hour ago and to be honest there are more birds at the feeders than ever before. Several of the feeders  have 10 birds on them at a time. Perhaps later I get a few photos of the birds.

Meg gave me Photoshop CS5 for Christmas and these are the first edited photos processed in the new software. Granted snow photos don't do justice to what Photoshop can do with normal photos with vivid colors.

 Our cold frames, don't they look pretty darn cold?

 The screened in porch, very cool all the snow on the screening!

 One of our favorite chairs.

 Pretty snowy.

 The pond is frozen and I expect it to turn white. Going down to 16 degrees Tuesday morning...

 The road we have to drive up to get out of here, no trucks have even tried it yet. I think Meg's Toyota Truck will make it. The power is out at Meg's sisters house, she has been rescued already.

 Snowy tools left outside.. my bad.

 Some of our blue wine bottles and a mini cold frame we added. Nothing but left over plastic and PVC piping stuck into the ground. I think there is rape and mustard greens under there. I picked some mustard greens and kale from the other cold frames Christmas Eve for our salad.

Snowy willows over the pond.

Christmas blooms report: Several pansies were actually blooming and one hellebore niger has 2 inch tall white blooms hidden mostly near the ground. 

Daisy's bad snow day!

Yesterday afternoon we got the "iffy" snow the weatherman almost predicted, just over an inch! I was at the local food co-op when Meg called to tell me it was snowing, by the time I got out of the co-op with our groceries it had already snowed a 1/4 inch.

Once home I started thinking about taking some photos of the birds at the feeders. I spent nearly an hour gathering up the monopod and telephoto lens mounting ring. Seems my memory on placing items these days blows. By the time I got the camera ready it was after 4 pm and not much light left. Meg took the dogs for a walk in the snow.  Below is a photo of the snow balls that stuck to poor Daisy's feet. She was a mess with softball sized balls of snow attached to her feet.


Needless to say Meg was very upset and Daisy was more than happy to get back inside. Getting these balls of snow off her feet was impossible, we just let them melt away as she does not take well to being handled.

Dark-eyed Junco, this one was waiting in the juniper under the hanging feeder waiting for sunflower seeds to fall onto the snowy juniper.

Carolina Chick-a-Dee about to jump onto one of our small hanging feeders!

White-breasted Nuthatch on the big oak tree that the feeders hang from.

 

Male Purple Finch  on a snowy branch. I'm assuming this is a Purple Finch as all the females we have seen thus far this season have been Purple Finches. This is one of the best photos I have taken of this species. All these photos were taken with my Canon D20, 400mm 5.6f telephoto lens  mounted on a monopod from under the overhang of our screened in porch.

This was our third snow event this season, normally no snow until Christmas or later. The forecast for Christmas right now is rain, go figure!

Currently the little cars are snowed in as the 1/3 mile road we live on has a 1/4 inch of ice on it and it is all uphill to get out. Expecting a high of 40 degrees today, but the road is entirely in the shade. Meg's 4 x 4 Toyota truck should be able to get out. Our coffee supply is about 2 days and same for the bird seed. Hopefully I can make it to Costco later this afternoon.

Snowy Weekend in Durham!

Yesterday the weather man said we might get snow, but it would not cover the ground. The snow was supposed to be from 3pm until 6pm. It started at 1pm and was still going a little at 11pm when I went to bed. In total I think we almost got 2 inches of snow!

As some of you might know we are collecting wine bottles for building a bottle wall along the pond. So far I have 25 blue wine bottles like these covered in snow. Anyone with a good source for blue bottles please let me know, I'd love to have a few hundred blue bottles for my project.

Eastern Redbud covered in snow, see all the dark seed pods on it!

Camellia 'Pink Butterfly' this bloom did OK with the snow and 28 degrees this morning. More blooms were under the snow.

This is a vitex tree with loads of seeds in our garden.

Another camellia 'Kanjiro' was covered in snow lots of flowers on it right now.

Our pond with it's first full blanketing of ice this winter. Temps are going to be colder than usual and I expect it to be frozen over for weeks. It did melt back today, most of it anyway. That smashed plant in the center was our swamp sunflower.

Our re purposed deck in the woods as it was snowing Saturday afternoon. I have $200 in replaced wood and bolts in this. It was the old deck on the back of the house before we added on. This is a great summer breakfast spot!

The cold frames as it was snowing Saturday. The ice remained on the glass door one in the front. I picked kale, mustard greens and rape for dinner tonight from the big cold frame

Birds on the melt down

Today the snow and ice melted all day. Mid morning I was outside and the sound of water falling on the icy snow reminded me of being under a loud powerline that kind of sizzles.

I got out the big guns today! My monster Gitzo tripod with a Silk ball head and added a 1.4x converter to my 400mm lens. So the lens became an 560mm lens with the digital camera multiplying it became a 800mm lens.

Tried several places to shoot but the water falling from the trees placed me under the porch again. The light was better today than yesterday, I did get sun and clouds, it was much brighter.

These squirrel photos were taken through dirty glass. Stupid me cleaned the spider poop and such off the window after taking these photos using the 400mm lens and monopod. Just so you know Carol!

Northern Cardinal  male

The female Northern Cardinal

One of my favorites the Song Sparrow, these are full time residents here unlike the other 'winter' sparrows.

Carolina Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco. Chickadees are very fast and hard to get the lens on them in time.

White-throated Sparrow their song is so sweet. I usually hear them before I see them in the fall when they arrive.

Tufted Titmouse

Red-bellied Woodpecker. These guys steal the show here! Our property is in the woods so we seldom get Blue Jays or Northern Mockingbirds.

Guess these pansies made it OK in the snow. Yesterday these were under the snow!

Paradise in ice.

Last night we got 2 1/2 inches of snow then it sleeted on top of that. This morning the snow became a half slush and half ice. Right now is is snowing very tiny flakes. I went out and took some photos.

I think this photo should be called Preacher! Just seems right to me. I waited a long time for that male Northern Cardinal to get brave enough to land on the feeder with me standing beside the porch 25 foot away. All of these bird photos were taken with my Canon 20D, 400mm f5.6 toy lens mounted on a mono pod.

Here the Cardinal landed on a bean pole close enough for a full frame photo!

Red-bellied Woodpecker bracing with its stiff tail feathers.

Tufted Titmouse

White-throated Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

American Goldfinch

Our gravel road with 1 inch or so of slush on it. If it freezes solid we are stuck here. Notice it is all uphill about a 1/4 mile to get out.

Hellebore in the snow.

Camellia Sasanqua 'Tsumaorigasa' on ice!