Nature Notes: End of January

The cedar waxwings continue to come in large groups for a drink of water on my deck, although they stayed away when we had our ice storm. I even put out fruit especially for them but I didn't see them until the ice melted.

American Robins are another bird that don't come to my deck in bad weather but come back as soon as we have a warmer day.

I put fresh water in the bird bath as soon as I saw the robin above at the ice bath.

It's amazing how many waxwings flock to my trees. The next shot only shows a fraction of them.

The hawk below landed so high in a tree and so far from me that I was surprised to be able to zoom in on it at all. In the shot it looks like a small bird but if you look at it's predatory beak you can tell what it is. Also as far away as I was, a small bird would have been a dot.

The female rufous-sided towhee below was eating on my deck in bad weather.

The squirrel below stretched out for a drink before the snow and sleet started.

I enjoyed watching the little titmouse shown below.

You can tell that the sparrow is cold the way it's all puffed out.

I thought the ice covered leaf below was rather strange looking.

I liked the way the icicles hanging from the roof gutter looked.

   

The male cardinal stood out against the icy vines.

 

The male rufous-sided towhee has a mouthful.

The female rufous-sided towhee also has a full mouth.

A yellow-rump warbler was snacking on my deck wall.

The female cardinal is ice skating.

I love the way trees look when they are covered in ice.

The bluejay is having breakfast.

A pine sapling lay down under the icy weight.

The mourning doves showed up for ring around the rosie after the ice melted.

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Today's Flowers: Ice Buds

The main thing growing at my house this morning is icicles.

It occurred to me that some of the bushes and vines have premature buds.

I carefully walked around photographing them.

This is the kind of weather where walking is tricky. I almost needed ice skates.

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Photohunters: Knitted Architecture

Knitted

Architecture or Building 

One meaning for knitted is to be joined closely together.

I went to my archives for pictures of my city (Raleigh, NC) that would show buildings which were knitted together.

In the downtown part of my city there are a lot of examples of buildings which are closely joined together.

These pictures were taken last spring at the Artsplosure festival.

In some of the shots, people and sculptures of dancers were knitted together.

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Nature Notes: Crazy Quilt

Crazy quilt pretty much sums up the weather nature provided this past week.

On a mild, rainy day the female cardinal above had a shower and bath at the same time.

The next night we finally had a snow shower.

I was hoping we'd get more snow than we did but it changed to freezing rain.

It was pretty but I'm still hoping for a big fluffy snow.

The icy layer on top did make fun sounds when I walked through it.

It also stuck around longer even after the temperature was above freezing.

An ice layer over snow takes longer to melt.

The little sparrow looked cold but was grateful for treats I put out.

The one time I always try and feed the birds is when we have snow or extra low temperatures.

Some of the icy shapes clung to the leaves.

I still have piles of leaves I raked up in the fall but haven't moved yet.

There were little holes in the wintry mix which may have been from the hard freezing rain or possibly animals.

By Sunday most of the ice and snow melted and I walked at the lake.

I tried to photograph a great blue heron in flight but didn't get the picture until it landed in a pine tree.

I almost never catch them in the trees.

The gulls were quite active at the lake.

The geese were foraging for food.

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