Wacky Weather

 Our last Christmas Bird Count of the season was on the last day of December. The weather was reasonably good but cold and foggy... which is better than pouring rain. We had a hard time figuring out what some of the birds we saw were so I took photos and sent them to the compiler, Paul Sullivan, who identified them for me. I'll bet he's glad most of his team can identify their own birds! 

My bird id photos are not blog worthy, but here is one of a pretty stream in our sector of the count. This is one stream where we have seen Dippers in the past but they eluded us this year.

  

Then it was January and the weather did not improve. It was challenging to get raptor surveys and beach surveys done in this wacky weather. I do not go to the beach for a survey when there are huge waves and high tides, which is most of the time these days, it seems. I hit one good day for tides and weather on January 3rd. But the ocean had left its mark and I hurried through my beached bird survey while nervously eyeing the ocean and the dune that the ocean had carved back considerably since my last visit.

As can be seen by the foam clear up to the dune, the ocean had only recently retreated. If a wave had come while I was on the beach and carved that dune as it did before I arrived, I would have been washed back into the ocean along with all the wood and wrack that was probably there before the waves reclaimed them. I hope February is kinder for my beached bird survey.

The next day the weather was still moderate so we did our Grand Ronde raptor survey. Again, I took lots of photos so I could stare at them on the computer later and try to figure out what we saw. The eagles I could tell without a photo so I didn't take any. Too bad because the other photos are crummy. 

On the 9th with icy weather threatening, we drove to Portland to help a recently widowed friend winterize her pipes. She had already moved nearly all her hundreds of cacti and succulents from their huge greenhouse into her house to keep them from freezing. Every place indoors was lined with plants... on tables, along hallways, up the stairs. It was beautiful! I told her she should give tours. Johnny made a list of all the things she needs his help with and has been getting materials together ever since. We'll go back up as soon as the weather allows.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... a preliminary ice storm had downed a dead trunk of the hybrid poplar in our front yard, completely blocking the front path. 

 

 But inside the greenhouse, orchids were... and are... blooming. I moved one into the house. 

A jade is blooming in the greenhouse, too.

Outdoors, the winter-blooming jasmine had climbed along the top of the wood door, annoying Johnny who has to bring the wood into the house through that door, but looking pretty in the sunshine.

Down in the woods, Agency Creek was running high and muddy.

 Then came the real ice storm. Temperature dipped to 17 degrees. Kitchen sink drain froze, making the washing machine and dishwasher also unusable. We kept the woodstove going day and night, burning through a lot of that wood Johnny had filled the woodshed with this fall. Now he spent a lot of time thawing water for the goats. An electric space heater in the milk room kept that water from freezing. With the ground covered first with snow and then ice on top, the goats stayed inside the barn. I put on Johnny's old forestry boots with spikes on the bottom to keep from falling on my way to and from the horse/dog shed and goat barn.

On January 15, the sun shone so I walked to the creek and took photos of tracks in the snow. I think this is a Gray Fox print.

I was hoping for some pretty farm-in-the-snow photos, but it wasn't particularly pretty... just cold!

 

Finally, on Friday the 19th, we were able to get out the driveway to do our North Santiam raptor survey. Snow and ice were along the roads all the way to Salem, and then it was like a miracle... roads were clear, and just a little ways eastward where our route took us, there was no snow alongside the road. There was even some sunshine! And unfrozen water!!

Weather was a little warmer for Johnny's 81st birthday on January 21st. The driveway was slushy enough for friend Mary to join us to do Ren Yuan, eat a birthday lunch, and watch a nature documentary. Later that day Johnny had happy birthday calls from friends and kids, so it was a good day.

Today, the 22nd, we woke to 50 degree weather and nearly all the snow and ice gone!! Rain didn't start until early afternoon so I managed to get manure (some of it still frozen) spread on the field... finally... while Johnny sawed up the tree still down across the front path. We hauled off the limbs and all the greenery the tree had taken down with it... to the burn pile in the lower field, where the seasonal pond is full to overflowing and no longer iced over.

The forecast is for rain for the rest of January but that's better than freezing rain and below freezing temperatures. The rest of the country is suffering with cold now but maybe they will warm up, too. Or maybe we will all just have to get accustomed to wacky weather.