AND STILL IT SNOWS... ~~ PARTING SHOT

AND STILL IT SNOWS...

February has turned out to be the snowiest month that Linda and I have seen since we moved here. So far this season, we have had a record-breaking 32" of snowfall, with 28.4" of it having fallen in February, according to the website How Much Will It Snow. We had 22 days in February in which it snowed (source: YakTriNews KVEW), breaking the records set in 2014. And I am sure it isn't done yet. But we have our pantry and freezer pretty well stocked (and bar, too). So we don't have to get out in it unless we want to. The days do seem awfully long, though, when you are stuck inside for days on end. We try to get out a couple of times each week, if the roads are clear enough.

One good thing from the snow was the arrival of the Varied Thrush.

Varied Thrush

I first saw this beautiful bird on Saturday morning, February 16th, when I thought I glimpsed a Robin up in the Catalpa tree. Most of the winter birds we have in Yakima are gray, black, or brown (or a combination of those colors), so when you see a bird of a different color, you notice it. This is so unlike North Carolina, where we had birds in every color of the rainbow, and most of them were year-round residents. Later that same day, Linda called me to the back window to look at a bird she had spotted. It was the same bird, and definitely not a Robin, so we got out our bird books and discovered that it was a Varied Thrush. This is a bird that we had actually seen once before, when we were on a hike in Ohanapecosh, a part of the Mount Rainier National Park. We had never seen this bird before in Yakima, so we were very excited. We actually saw two of them that day, a male and a female. They were both busy pecking away underneath the front and back feeders. The female seemed to think that the feeders were hers, because she was constantly chasing the male away. This bird moves fast, so I was lucky to get a few pretty good pictures of it while it was snowing. A couple of days later, the couple brought some friends with them and we had a total of five Thrushes in our yard. They usually split between the front and back feeders, chasing each other and sometimes the smaller birds. Often they would perch in the branches of our Thundercloud Plum tree in the front yard, keeping an eye on the feeder. I would sit inside and watch them watching the feeder. It was so nice to look outside and see several colorful birds perched in our tree.

A trio in the tree

Although we haven't actually seen him, I am almost sure that the Cooper's hawk is still hanging around. One reason is because we had "frozen" birds the other day. This is not an actual birding term that I know of, it's just something Linda and I use to refer to this phenomenon. It doesn't mean that the birds are actually frozen, it just means that they don't move for long periods of time. We have seen birds do this when we knew for sure that a hawk was around, so we just figured that they don't move so the hawk will not notice them. It is a pretty good indicator of the predator's presence. I got my binoculars out and looked at this Thrush below while he was frozen. I could almost see the fear in his eye.

Scared Motionless

Another bird that we haven't seen in the winter (but I believe we have seen in the summer) is the Golden-Crowned Sparrow. He's a feisty little guy, as you can see in the slideshow further down on the blog. It was so dark outside while it was snowing that at first I didn't notice the yellow crown on top of his head. But once I got a good closeup picture of him it was obvious.

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

A few of our old friends popped in one day to pay us a visit. We were so thrilled to see them!
(sound up!)

Some of our usual winter birds showed up, one of the most beautiful ones being the Spotted Towhee. It is extremely hard to get a good picture of this fellow as he is always on the move. He doesn't sit still for a second. As soon as I think I have a good picture of him and I squeeze the shutter button, he moves. So I usually wind up getting a picture of the back of his head. I still try, though, in hopes that one day I will luck out and get a fabulous photograph of this bird that we like to call by his former name, "Rufous."

This past Sunday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow that had fallen over the night. There's something to be said about sitting around a roaring fireplace with a cup of coffee, watching the snow fall outside. Later that day the snow had begun to melt a little bit, and the bushes outside our living room window resembled cotton plants, with cotton balls all over them. My friends in the South will see this resemblance right off, but I don't know about you Westerners.

Cotton plants?

Here is one last snow picture. Our neighbor that lives behind us has what has got to be the cutest bird feeder hanging from their walnut tree.

VW Microbus feeder

PARTING SHOT

I was going to get a current picture of Summer Girl to post, but she was so comfortable on top of the big bed that I didn't have the heart to mess her up. So here is montage of pictures of her taken in the past, during better weather. It looks like she does the same thing, no matter what the weather is! Enjoy!

See you here next week!

A DAY TO REMEMBER

You know, there are certain days that you will always remember where you were and what you were doing on that day, because a very important event took place. Like when John F. Kennedy died, or when men first walked on the moon, or when the Challenger shuttle blew up. Tomorrow is one of those days, February 21st, because that is the day one year ago that Linda's dad died.

Last year the 21st was on a Wednesday, so I was busy working on my blog when Linda's sister Wendy called to give me the heartbreaking news. I drove up to the school where Linda was volunteering and told her, then we frantically made plans to drive down to California. It doesn't seem like it has been that long already, but we all feel like there has been a huge hole in our lives for the past year. Linda made this comment while we were down in California for the memorial, and it sums up the feeling very well: "The ceiling's been lowered, there's no one above us anymore." If nothing else, a passing like this gives you a new awareness of your own mortality.

I have been mulling over what I would say in the blog today for quite some time. Linda's dad was a very important person to me, so I don't think any words would be adequate to express my feelings. Not only was he like a second dad, but he was also a friend, as well as a very interesting person. I got to know him well over the years, and let me tell you, I feel lucky. He was a man who wore many hats...figuratively and literally. I miss him.

I have put together a little slideshow in the hopes that this will convey a sense of the kind of person he was...warm, inviting, interesting and interested, plus fun to be around.

We will always remember you, Dad.

SNOWPOCALYPSE 2019 ~~ PARTING SHOT

SNOWPOCALYPSE 2019

What a week it has been! If you live anywhere in Washington State, you probably heard the terms "Snowpocalypse" and "Snowmageddon" used a lot in the past week. For my friends back East, you probably read about it or heard it on the news. The reason is that entire state of Washington has had snow for the past week, and most of the time it was non-stop. Right now, Yakima is sitting on 21" of snowfall for this winter season. Last year we had 5" so it's way more than we had then, but not nearly as much as we had the two previous years with 34" both of those years. I got this information from the website How Much Will It Snow. You can check the actual snowfall and the predictions for any city in the US. This website is predicting 4 more inches for us tomorrow. Although the snowfall amount for Yakima is not all that unusual, Seattle is a different story entirely. The amount of snow that has fallen on Seattle in the 2018-2019 winter season is 20" and is the most snow that city has seen in the past 50 years. The two previous years they had 4" each year, and the two years before that they had 0" each year. So you can see it was a very big deal for people living in Seattle. That city has so many hills, not to mention so many people, that I would not want to drive in that much snow. As a matter of fact, I don't like driving in Seattle when it is bone dry! Here are a few pictures below that Linda's daughter, Emily, sent us of the snow in Seattle.

Emily's bird feeder area

The rest of the back yard

Emily, like most of us who love birds, continued to keep her feeders filled so the birds would have something to eat to keep themselves fueled up. Birds have to eat constantly during the cold weather in order to keep their core body temperature up so they won't freeze. It becomes more difficult for them to find natural food sources due to the fact that whatever is on the ground is covered up by several inches of snow. Below is a picture of her bird feeder area with a Northern Flicker clinging to the side of the suet feeder. Below that is a picture of one of her hummingbirds perched on the heated nectar feeder. Over to the lefthand side of the hummer feeder, Emily has a work light trained on the feeder to add extra heat so the little hummers can stay warm while feeding.

Northern Flicker on suet feeder

Hummer on feeder

Not to be outdone, Linda's sister Wendy reported in from Tacoma and sent pictures as well. Tacoma is only slightly behind Seattle with 19" of snow this season. Wendy took some walks around the neighborhood and sent back some stunning pictures of trees in the snow. Below are a couple of her shots.

Large evergreen tree flocked in snow

Tree heavy with snow

Meanwhile, Linda has been working hard to keep the driveway shoveled. I shoveled a little bit a couple of times, but I have a shoulder that is giving me some problems so I haven't been too helpful (how convenient, you say). Anyway, she has been diligent at this, which is no small feat considering that for the past week, it has snowed every day (except for today, we caught a break). She still shoveled snow today anyway!

Break time is over, back to work!

I spent most of the snowy days trying to get some good bird video. Since it was so cold I opted to shoot through the windows for the most part. I have put together several short video clips to make the video below that is about 2 1/2 minutes long. Now, I know most people only have an attention span of about 10 seconds these days, but I think this video is worth a couple of minutes. Also, turn your sound up if at all possible.

The video begins with sparrows and house finches on the seed feeder in the back yard, with Oregon Juncos on the ground. This particular day it was very windy due to Yakima being under a Blizzard Alert, with winds gusting up to 50 mph. The sparrows struggled to stay on the feeder, as did a larger black bird, the Brown-Headed Cowbird. The sparrows and juncos on the ground were soon joined by another bird that resembled a very large female house finch. This was actually either a juvenile or female Red-Winged Blackbird (hard to say which because they look very similar). There was no mistaking the male blackbird, though, when he showed up. The jet-black body and bright red shoulder epaulets gave him away. The blackbirds had a hard time staying on the feeder, but still they gave it their best shot as they were probably very hungry. Meanwhile, inside the house Summer Girl was enjoying the birds from the comfort of the front window sill. In the last segment of the video, the bird feeder may look like it's on fire, but that's just the reflection of our fireplace in the front window. And by the way, I asked for quiet while I was videoing, but as you can hear, Summer Girl had other ideas.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the best photographer of snow. I think my best photographs are taken in the Spring and Summer, when there isn't all this pesky weather to contend with. However, one day I was looking out the front window at the sparrows under the bird feeder when all of a sudden I saw them scatter. I happened to have my iPad in my hand, so I immediately hit the "record" button and this below is what I got.

It was our old friend, the Cooper's hawk, trying his best to catch his breakfast. He went away empty-taloned that day, but I am sure he is still around, keeping a sharp eye on both feeders. No telling how many birds he nabs when no one is looking.

One more video and I will stop...for now. This one is just under a minute long, but I had to include the footage I got of the Black-Billed Magpie pecking away at the suet cake. We had some spectacular icicles hanging off of the roof, so I tried to get some closeups of those. Also, I stepped out onto the porch one morning with my camera and saw this sweet little bird, which I think is a Song Sparrow. And closing out the video we have a male House Sparrow checking out the situation. He even turned around to show off the beautiful feathers on his back.

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl does not really like all the snow, she says it cramps her style. She has been content to watch the snow out of the window, and lately she has taken up helping Linda do the jigsaw puzzle.

Hey, Mom, I found a piece!

That's all for now, join us again next week and I promise...no more snow pictures (maybe)!

FINALLY ~~ FEEDING OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS ~~ COOKING UP A STORM ~~ PARTING SHOT

FINALLY!

We finally got a good snow this week! We weren't really expecting it to be as good as it turned out, so I postponed my usual Tuesday morning trip to the grocery store and started working on my blog instead.

It started snowing Monday morning around 4:00am, and didn't stop until Tuesday morning around 9:00am. Linda went outside and measured it and we wound up getting 12 inches! I believe this was the softest snow I have ever seen. About mid-morning on Monday I took the bottom picture below. The top picture shows our little porch statues during the snow we had on December 23rd.

Dec. 23 at top, Feb. 04 on bottom

This picture below shows them as they are now on Tuesday morning.

Feb. 05...what a difference a day makes!

The expression on this little guy's face just about sums up how our little porch animals must have been feeling!

Help, I'm drowning in snow!

I had to go outside earlier today (Tuesday) to drag the trash can out to the road just in case they happen to come by sometime today. While I was out there I decided to take a few pictures, even though it was bitter cold. I got a few showing the snow in the front yard. Between Linda and I, we have taken a bazillion pictures of snow over the past 11 years, but every time it snows we still take more. It's so pretty, we can't help it.

Our Blue Spruce tree

Thundercloud Plum tree

Our side tables on the patio

Snow stacked on top of the wind chimes

Snow piled up on bird feeder

Linda went out and filled both bird feeders and put a bird cake out in the front under the feeder. It wasn't long before the little buggers showed up and commenced pecking away. I managed to get a few good shots of the Spotted Towhee (below) even though it wasn't very light outside.

Western Spotted Towhee

This bird species used to be named the Rufous-Sided Towhee (pronounced "toe-hee") due to the rusty color of the feathers on the sides. However, there were two types in the US, an Eastern version and a Western version. Recently the name for the Western version has been changed to Spotted Towhee because of the many white spots that appear on its back. The Eastern version has been renamed the Eastern Towhee. I know, what an exciting name. I liked the old name better. I still call this bird a "Rufous" whenever I see one. We had many of these back in North Carolina and we loved to hear their trilling song. The Western Spotted Towhee has a very similar song. I do not see as many in Yakima as we had in Lumberton, but for the past several years we have had a mated couple come to our yard in the winter. You can read more about this very interesting bird by clicking here.

FEEDING OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

Linda had a great idea the other day. Yes, she actually gets great ideas a lot...far more often than I do. Anyway, she thought it might be a good idea for us to get a bag of cracked corn and take it to Randall Park for the ducks and geese. She has been taking a donation once a month to the Yakima Humane Society, and she thought this might be a good donation for the birdies. So, on Saturday we went to Walmart and got a big bag of cracked corn and left it in the back of the truck. On Sunday morning, we suited up and rode to Randall Park where she distributed the corn on the ground for the ducks and geese while I filmed it for posterity. As soon as the birds saw us get out of the truck, they all started waddling over from the pond, where they had been hanging out. When they saw Linda starting to put down some corn, they all shifted into high gear. I almost cracked up when those two African Geese got wind of things and started over. If you watch the video below, turn your sound up so you can hear the contented little "coos" of the ducks as they eat (you might be able to hear it above the squawking). For some reason there weren't many Canada geese around, the crowd consisted mostly of Mallards (and Manky Mallards) and American Wigeons.

After they ate their fill, the ducks and geese all wandered back over towards the pond to continue hanging out. I walked over there to get some pictures and saw this beautiful duck below, just settling in to take a nap.

Night, night!

COOKING UP A STORM

It wasn't all snow and ducks and geese this past week. I also managed to get in quite a bit of cooking time. I have been wanting to do something for the staff at the Montessori School of Yakima, where Linda used to work and now volunteers. The ladies there have always been so good to Linda and she so much enjoys being there. So, I decided to bake them some cookies. I searched through many, many, many cookie recipes and finally came up with this one (click here) for "Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Chunker Cookies." Of course when I went to the grocery store I couldn't find some of the ingredients so I had to substitute, but they were some awesome cookies nonetheless. When I made them I used Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels and Milk Chocolate Morsels because I couldn't find any bittersweet chocolate. And I also had to use walnuts instead of cashews because the cashew nut bin was empty when I was at the store. The one thing that I am glad I didn't have to substitute for is the dried cherries, because I think that is what put these cookies over the top.

Ummm, cookies

The same day I made the cookies, I also made a loaf of Rosemary Garlic bread to go with the Potato and Leek soup that I made in the Instant Pot. Let me tell you, that was one epic day of cooking. I was exhausted at the end of it. But oh, the rewards that we both reaped from my efforts!

Speaking of the Instant Pot, I am continually amazed at the delicious recipes that can be made with this appliance. Just about any soup recipe made in the Instant Pot comes out with awesome flavor. And a couple of weeks ago I cooked in my IP some of the best beef ribs I have ever eaten. One thing I made this past week that turned out really well was some fresh beets. I usually buy the red beets and peel, slice into wedges, and roast them in the oven. The other day at the grocery store I noticed some golden beets on sale, so I bought a bunch and that night I just washed them, cut off the ends, and plonked them in the IP. In about a half hour I took them out and the peelings just slid off them. They were nice and tender and juicy. We found that the golden beets have a much milder flavor than the red version. They were certainly beautiful and delicious.

Golden Beets

PARTING SHOT

Linda and I aren't the only ones who liked to watch the snow fall this past week. Summer Girl spent quite a bit of time in the front window, looking out at the snow. I bet she was glad to be looking from the inside out this time!

That's all for this week, join me again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!