End of January

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



February is going to be a big change.



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



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



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



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



The snow and ice we had was very pretty.



We had more sleet and freezing rain than snow.



I was grateful that I didn't lose power.



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



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



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.



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



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.



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



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



It was beautiful at sunrise and at sunset.



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



I photograph the birds from my window.



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



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



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



I love the way sunsets look with bare limbs.

Mixed week

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



The female cardinal and sparrow are also dinner companions.



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



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



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



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



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

First week in January

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



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



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



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



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



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



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.



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.



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.



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



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. 



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



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.



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

End of 2015 and beginning of 2016

Happy New Year!



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



We've had crazy mixed up weather.



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



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



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



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



I hope it will stay cool for awhile here.



There are already some very confused trees and flowers.



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



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.



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.



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



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



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