Good morning everyone! Well, last night I went out to bring in the bird feeders and I stood out there for a bit. It was earlier than I normally bring in the feeders, but the birds were already gone. And it was quiet. Kind of an eerie silence. Then the clouds in the west became dark and an east wind began to blow, quite strong. It was just like that “calm before the storm”, until the wind began. Sometime overnight the wind switched to the north and became very strong.

This morning the trees are being whipped around by that wind. So far the electricity is still working, which is nice. With storms like this we often lose electricity. The snow began to fall early, but just a light snow, nothing serious. That has changed now, it is snowing heavier but we have only had about 2 inches (5cm) so far. Most of the snow is supposed to come along tonight and tomorrow morning. I don’t think we will get as much as they have forecast though.

Right now the forecast is for 16 to 22 inches (40 to 50cm) of snow. I have already cleaned off the feeders twice this morning, they get covered with snow quickly. I did put up a little shelter out here which helps keep the seeds from being covered so quickly. It will still happen because of the wind, but it will take longer. I did this mainly for the redpolls and juncos. The juncos found it right away and more than 20 have been trying to crowd into that space. Guess it should be larger, but I don’t have anything larger for a cover.

Wow, all the birds just flew away fast. There must be a hawk out there looking for breakfast. Well, it is a few minutes later now and the redpolls and juncos are returning. The evening grosbeaks, chickadees and nuthatches still have not come back. There are easily more than 200 redpolls again. It will be busy at the feeders today and tomorrow.

Jasper was here earlier for his breakfast, but he did not stay long. Then Chase showed up. Jasper must have seen him and he came running from across the side street, across two lots and that is when Chase must have seen Jasper so he left quickly. But they met and the chase was on! Forget the storm, going after Chase is more important.

They ran through the trees, up high swaying in the wind, then flying back down the tree to the ground, well, snow, then over to the next tree to do it all over again. Chase gave up more quickly today though and went back home with Jasper close behind him. Meanwhile Slim showed up, ate a couple peanuts, then took one more and ran back home. Thank you so much for reading today, I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin. (Praying for the people in Ukraine)

©2022 Steve McLeod