Avian Snow Angel

I know everyone is snow-weary, but I have one more picture I'd like to share.  This was in my front yard.

My nephew dubbed it the "avian snow angel."

Snow Walk

The booger bear of a winter storm that dropped ice and snow in the deep south slid up our way, too.  We got 8 inches of very dry, fluffy snow Tuesday night.  It was our second round of snow this month.  We were expecting temperatures in the teens last night but Mother Nature had a different plan.  We dipped below zero - so despite the sunshine today, it looks as if the snow cover is going to stick around for a day or two longer.

Treebeard and I headed out for a walk during the mid-afternoon yesterday.  We covered about a mile and a half, looking for tracks and such.  Signs of wildlife were few and far between, though.  We saw plenty of birds and bird tracks but the other critters were hanging tight it seemed.  After checking out several low areas we finally happened upon some deer sign.

We entered an area of young woods and found some criss-crossing trails.

 

Some of the trails offered up a little something extra.

A closer look revealed what that "extra" was.

 

We were surprised by the number of piles of droppings that we found in a relatively small area.  Guess the deer had been eating well prior to the snowfall.

As we followed the trails, we came upon an area where the deer had bedded down on either side of a large downed tree.  One of the deer must have been anti-social or else there just wasn't room for one more on the other side.

 

 

 Three beds on this side of the log.

Hope they cuddled up last night.  -3 degrees F is chilly for these parts.

Bee Ready

Sunday was sunny with temperatures in the mid-50s.  Monday was mostly sunny with a high of 60.  Our honey bees were delighted and wasted no time in heading out of the hive.  I was rinsing road salt off our car when I noticed the bees were checking out the drops of water on the car's roof.  I walked over to the hive to see what the industrious little critters were up to.  Some were cleaning house and others were striking off to find water and even a little pollen from the henbit and dandelions that seem to bloom no matter what.

We're expecting another wintery blast today with a possibility of up to a foot of snow.  Hang tough, little girls!  We are supposed to be back up in the 50s by the weekend.

Still Icy

Yep, still icy cold outside.  I'm afraid this white stuff is going to stick around.  The weather folks are already saying we may be in for more snow next week.  Ugh.

Snow!

We don't get snow often and we certainly don't get temperatures in the teens very often.  We got both last night.  We awoke to a dazzlingly bright morning with a whopping 1.7 inches of snow on the ground.  Wind chills were below zero.  Chilly willy, for sure. 

 Roux, our foster dog, sporting her purple 'Walk Your Dog with Love' harness.  I don't often endorse products, but I will give two thumbs up for this harness.  If you have a dog that pulls, you might want to check out the walkyourdogwithlove.com site.

 

It's an odd perspective, but look back to the right, behind the wind chimes.  That's our lone bee hive.  It's crazy to think that just yesterday morning the bees were out working like crazy.  Today they were tucked in tight.  This is the second round of really cold weather we have had this month.  Bet the bees are over it and ready for spring!

I found angel tracks under the redbud tree in the front yard :)

The brush pile next to the snow covered limb is where a bunch of those angels hang out.  I bet there were over 80 birds in there this morning.  It is a popular place for the feathered critters in the yard.

The weather folks say it's going to be cold for the next few days.  I guess that means that some of this white stuff is going to hang around for a while.  Sure hope all of it is melted away before seven days have passed.  My grandmother always said if snow stays on the ground for seven days, it's waiting for more to come...

Winter's Revelation

Sometimes you just don't know who's living right next to you.  Such was the case for us this year.  We had no idea that bald-faced hornets had set up housekeeping in the edge of our woods.  It was well after leaf fall that we discovered this large nest, just head-high in a small beech tree.

Such industrious workers, those hornets.

One From the Files

The weather has not been camera friendly the last few times I've ventured out for a walk or a paddle.  As a result, I have very few current pictures to share.  What I do have are some shots from this past summer and fall that I can share.  So let me reach into the files and pull out a few I think you might like.  (And a note to those of you who are on my friends list on Facebook...you've seen these pictures.)

Way back in April, when I was still relatively newly retired, we spent a great deal of time out and about hiking and paddling.  In an effort to expand our knowledge of local waters, we struck out into nearby counties to see what they had to offer in the way of navigable streams.  We revisited a creek we had paddled briefly on a VERY windy day about two years ago.  It is called Dillard Creek. It is in Chowan County and empties into the Chowan River.  The river is pretty wide where the creek flows into it - probably about 1.5 to 1.75 miles across.  We paddled a short distance out into the river to take a look around.  I won't bore you with a whole slew of pictures, but I think you might find the following at least mildly interesting:

 

Take a look at the tree to your left.  Yeah, the taller one.  See anything out of the ordinary?

Okay, how about now?  Way up there near the top where the tree starts to lean off to the left. Could that be an osprey nest?  No, wait, that's a live tree and ospreys are partial to dead trees.  Eagles build in live trees but that nest isn't nearly large enough.  Hmmm...maybe a closer look is in order.

Well now, that's a surprise.  It's a Canada Goose!  I have seen many a goose nest in my life, but this was a first.  Never have I seen a goose nesting so high in a tree.  Prior to this, the highest I had ever seen a nest was about six feet off the water in an old cypress stump.

  Wonder what the goslings thought about that first step into the wild blue?

Anybody Out There?

My goodness, it's been a while.  Pablo from over at Roundrock Journal suggested it was about time that I post something here.  Perhaps he's right.  Things certainly have changed since I posted last - it may take a bit to learn my way around the "new" Blogger!

I'll ease back into the whole blogging thing by sharing a photo of our current house guest, a stray we are calling Roux:

She is a mastiff mix or as we prefer to call her, a muttstiff.  On January 4th, she magically appeared on the front porch and made herself at home.  She is one to two years old and ridiculously friendly.  We have been fattening her up - she was about 20 pounds underweight and sporting quite a load of intestinal parasites when she first came to us.  Now she's on meds for the worms and is gaining weight at an acceptable rate.  (The vet seems to think she needs to carry around 80 to 85 pounds.)  We are planning on having her spayed.  From the looks of things, she has had at least one litter of puppies in her life.

We have put up posters, notified the vets in the area, called the pound and animal control to get the word out that we have her.  We don't hold out any real hope that her owners will show up though.   Seems like dogs with mysterious pasts show up regularly out here in the sticks - sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose.

Well, this wasn't a planned post, it was just a response to Pablo's prompting.  I'll try to put together something a little better next time.  Meanwhile, thanks for stopping by.