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| Snowy day on Lions Park Pond © Diane B. Reed |
The forecasters have been beside themselves for the last few days with dire predictions of massive amounts of snow. First it was supposed to arrive yesterday morning, then early last evening. As it turns out, about three inches or so fell here last night. Even though we didn't get that much snow, if you've been watching the news you must have the impression that we're all buried under mountains of snow. A breathless commentator marveled at the foot or more of snow in the Cascades. Snoqualmie Pass (the main route to Seattle from eastern Washington) at 3022 feet gets a lot of snow, even when there are only a few inches at lower elevations. The pass closes periodically when the snow gets overwhelming or so crews can do avalanche control. The mountains, including the Cascades and the Blues do get socked, but that's normal at this time of the year. If you travel back and forth across the mountains, you have all wheel drive, studded tires, or chains.
And in Seattle, which is not accustomed to significant snowfalls, driving tends to get a little wacky. Folks with SUVs drive like the pavement is dry--a clip on the Weather Channel showed one sliding all the way down one of Seattle's many hills.
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| © Diane B. Reed |
Wow, Diane, you get a coot & a snow goose, all we get is crows & pigeons & two little birds that MAY be house finches--they were nesting in a bush below our deck last summer, I believe. I didn't have any bird seed, so put out what we did have after the 8" of snow fell here (VERY big deal): barley, sunflower seeds (shelled), & some stale peanuts. The crows left the peanuts behind at first, but by Friday were hungry enuf to eat them.
ReplyDeleteThere's a man here who, every day of the year, comes to visit his aged mom in the 'Care Center" (aka, nursing home) & takes her for a walk in her wheel chair. She's always well bundled up, even in July--doesn't have much circulation, I guess. Today when I went out to get the mail, he was passing by, pushing her, & they were being dive-bombed by about 3 seagulls & 3 crows! When I told H. about it, he said this man scatters bird seed, & apparently today (even tho' most of the snow has been melted by the heavy rain that fell yesterday) they were impatient to get it! Not about to be polite! What a sense of entitlement!
Reminded me of that Hitchcock movie from about 1965, "The Birds."
So I'm still not sure about installing a bird feeder outside. Wouldn't want the neighbors complaining about bird fights!