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Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Nature Notes: Moving into Winter

The main way I know we are moving into winter is by looking at the mostly leafless trees and spotting the birds who are very busy staying warm.

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We've had a fairly mild fall. Not necessarily the warmest fall I remember but the first hard freeze was quite late.

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Our average first frost date is late October but this year it barely dipped below freezing until last week. I have only dumped ice out of the bird baths once so far.

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Last year our first light dusting of snow was in November but this year no sign of the white stuff so far.

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We've had a very wet fall. It has rained like cats and dogs but as soon as the temperature dips below freezing it stops raining.

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Living in the North Carolina piedmont, our weather tends to change a lot. One day can be quite warm in the winter and another can be freezing.

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I've been enjoying the clouds. I think of August and September as the months with the best clouds but our December clouds have been fantastic.

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I tried to get a shot of the birds in the trees and still show the patchwork clouds. On the lefthand side of the shot below are tons of birds but you can't really see them so the shot after that one will give a close-up.

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I used to always have my shots on my blog in a format you can click to enlarge but I started using up my free allotment on picsa. Therefore, lately I to use photobucket a lot and I have to put them in the size they are on the host site so you can't enlarge them.

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I still have a little space on picsa but most of my current posts are done using photobucket since I have a lot of free space left there. I guess I'll stop with my holly bush whose berries are brightening up my front yard. I have four holly bushes and even though I haven't done any decorating for Christmas yet, they at least give me some outdoor Christmas cheer.

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10 comments:

ramblingwoods said...

Not coming from the south I didn't think about what fall and winter would be like so I am happy to be learning about it from you. The clouds you captured are wonderful, here we have gray and more gray, but it's true that it is easier to spot the birds...true for the hawks spotting the birds too...Thank you for sticking by Nature Notes Carver.. Michelle

Cezar and Léia said...

You did a wonderful post, with the beautiful tree silhouette, unfortunately now those beautiful colourful Autumn leaves have gone, but the little bird stays firmly in his place, looking that magnificent sky with lovely clouds and the little red take the scene in that last shot!
Beautiful!
Léia
( and please forgive my poor English okay! :)

Ayie said...

it's really chilly out there now

SandyCarlson said...

Those are great photos. Interesting, the change in timing. We have the same pattern here, not that the earth is warming up or anything.

DeniseinVA said...

A lovely visit enjoyed my virtual walk with you through your super photographs.

Unknown said...

Interesting your fall is just a few weeks behind ours in Ontario, I would have guessed your weather to be much, much milder than it actually is.

Caron said...

Around here, up near the limits of mankind's ability to endure bad weather (sorry-just feeling sorry for myself), it is technically fall, but with 16" of snow on the ground...

I am envious of your mild weather.

Cloudia said...

wonderful winter skies!



Aloha, Friend


Comfort Spiral

Unknown said...

That birdie looks indeed cold :)
But the skies and the frozen puddle with the leaves look great!

AscenderRisesAbove said...

I enjoyed the leaves under the ice; it looked to be a collage of sorts. And the scattered broken clouds in the sky. Reminders of winter that we don't see in these parts.