When I woke up this morning, another 6-8 inches of snow had arrived on the previous snow pack and the yard was full of critters trying to find morsels buried in the snow.
It is nearly impossible for me to enjoy a morning cup of coffee when I look out the window and see a frozen hummingbird feeder covered in snow along with near empty birdfeeders. Coffee comes second on mornings like this. First, thaw out the hummer nectar for the lone Anna's hummingbird that probably wishes he had followed the others down to Palm Desert for the Winter and then fill up the feeders. I can eat last since I didn't have to survive in below freezing temperatures.
It has been quite an interesting 2 weeks! We've been told to evacuate twice due to wildfires in the last 6 years but we've never been told to shelter in place due to unprecedented flooding. If you watched the news on Valentine's Day, you probably saw impressive video of a rushing river and a washed out road. If you missed it, you can do a Google search and find it. You won't get it from this blog since I was trapped in our home up on the mountain until they opened up one of the 3 roads leading to this mountain town.
Am I complaining? Absolutely not! I admit shoveling a long steep driveway is not my favorite thing to do but if it helps us get out of a drought, bring on the snow. I am fascinated by this ice sculpture that is hanging on one of our trees. You can see the initial formation of the icicle by the two tiny twigs but the rest of the formation is free form. How did this happen?
Besides shoveling, I've been trying to help out our outdoor neighbors with some food. This furry rascal grabbed one of the suet cakes that the birds were sharing and ran into our neighbor's yard onto a high branch where he could gorge on the cake without competition from the jays and woodpeckers.
It's not always so easy for the squirrels. Between the floods and the snow blasts, this red-shouldered hawk came to visit.
His intentions were clear.
He wasn't interested in the little birds flying boldly near him. He had his eyes on a furry chipmunk. I noticed that the squirrel spied this formidable creature for he sat motionlessly on a tree branch above the hawk's head. The chipmunk, however, was oblivious to its presence. We watched the hawk swoop to capture the little chipmunk but it wasn't successful this time.
Another animal of the forest was successful in getting its next meal. My husband and son found a fresh deer carcass on a nearby trail along with some mountain lion tracks. Obviously, they didn't stick around long so they didn't see the victor of that battle. I wasn't along on that hike so no photo of that but you can imagine it.
So my day began and ended with one of these cute furry squirrels watching me.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Photos and content by Robin Roberts.
Click on photos to enlarge.
Photos and content by Robin Roberts.
