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Sunday, January 31, 2016

End of January

The pictures in this post were taken on January 23, 24 and 25, 2016.

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February is going to be a big change.

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If the first 10 days of February holds to the forecast it will barely get below freezing on any of the nights.

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I know the birds will appreciate a break in winter weather.

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I like a break as long as it's not too dramatic.

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Sometimes shifts from winter to spring weather and back again make me feel slightly ill.

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The snow and ice we had was very pretty.

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We had more sleet and freezing rain than snow.

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I was grateful that I didn't lose power.

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When I finally made it to the office once the roads were cleared the dangerous part was the parking lot.

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Even though the preceding day had been well above freezing the parking lot was like an ice skating rink. 

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I had on hiking boots and was stomping down as hard as possible to get traction when a co-worker said, this is the most dangerous part of the trip.

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It was a minor miracle no one had a bad fall.

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The problem with the kind of storm we had was pre-treatment with sand and brine couldn't off set the amount of freezing rain that fell.

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Below is what my neighborhood road looked like long after the secondary streets were clear.

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On the 25th of January we had a beautiful moon.

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It was beautiful at sunrise and at sunset.

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It amazes me how many birds flock to this tree down the road from me.

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I photograph the birds from my window.

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The moon above looked red because it was catching the sunset.

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I get the best sunset shots in the winter when the trees are bare.

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There are so many trees in my neighborhood that I don't get much of the sunset in the summer.

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I love the way sunsets look with bare limbs.

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Friday, January 22, 2016

Mixed week

The flashy male cardinal dwarfs the little junco but they seem to be eating together rather companionably.

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The female cardinal and sparrow are also dinner companions.

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I supplied fresh bath water this morning and there was a lot of debating before jumping in.

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I always think male rufous-sided towhees look like they are wearing dinner jackets.

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The starling was the first bathing beauty brave enough to jump in.

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The shots above were all taken today, Friday 1-22-16. The shot below was taken this Monday.

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The last shot was taken yesterday before winter weather moved in.

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Sunday, January 10, 2016

First week in January

This post begins with shots I took on a Sunday walk, January 3, 2016.

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I was surprised to see a Great Blue heron on the piling at Shelley Lake since the piling is usually reserved for cormorants alone.

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The herons are usually at other parts of the lake and the cormorants usually have the old piling to themselves.

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Above the gulls that always arrive in the winter are sharing the sandbar with a gaggle of cormorants.

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Until last year I usually only saw a handful of cormorants, always on the piling.

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Last year a large cormorant convention arrived in the fall and apparently has done the same this year.

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Now that Bill has retired and bought a farm house in the country we don't walk at Shelley Lake as much on the weekends.

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The Fall's Lake parks and trails are in between where I live (same house we bought together when we were married) and the country place where he lives now.

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It has been fun meeting at different preserves and places that are part of the Fall's Lake land on weekends for a change. My last post included some shots I took on the way to Bill's house for Christmas which showed the barns and country roads. Until he retired he was living in a townhouse near me which was convenient but I'm glad he has a place for a garden now and it's less than an hour from where I live. The places we usually meet to walk now are only 20 minutes from my house which works well for both of us.

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I was glad Bill suggested walking at Shelley Lake (in my neighborhood) on the first Sunday in January.

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Most years we walk at Shelley Lake on New Year's day but this year it was too wet to walk on New Year's day. 

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The bird shots are ones I took on January 6, 2016 when I had car trouble and worked from home.

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Although I don't work from home all the time like I did for well over 10 years I'm still set up for it.

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It's nice that when I have car trouble or if we have bad weather I can always work from home if necessary. 

Saturday, January 2, 2016

End of 2015 and beginning of 2016

Happy New Year!

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This is a mix of late December 2015 and early January 2016 shots

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We've had crazy mixed up weather.

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December ended with spring stormy weather that wasn't a bit like winter. 

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I was glad that the new year has given us some chilly clear days.

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I know there have been a lot of extremes all over the U.S.

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Some places have had strong winter storms and others warm weather like we've experienced.

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I hope it will stay cool for awhile here.

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There are already some very confused trees and flowers.

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As fun as it is to see buds and flowers in winter that usually isn't great for spring.

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A few flowers here and there are o.k. that fall off in winter but it's when buds get too far along that I worry.

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The shot below that I took today is a good example of what I don't like to see too much of in early winter because I expect most of those buds are too far along to survive until spring.

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It was chilly and seasonable again but the Japanese Magnolia above got going in spring mode from the previous week of spring weather.

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We've been going back and forth between spring and winter weather for at least five weeks.

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I hope everyone had a good holiday and new year ahead. 

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