Good morning and Happy Friday to everyone! Wow, it is another very cold morning out there! Mainly it is because of a very strong north wind that blew in overnight which is making it feel like -22F (-30C). And we were supposed to get less than half an inch (1cm) of snow overnight as well. That turned into more than 3 inches (8cm) of snow. And not exactly the nice light fluffy kind. This is regular, heavier type snow. I decided not to do much shoveling today, but I had to do some, especially since I need to go out to the pharmacy for my medication today.

And my steps had disappeared completely. The wind blew the snow around and made my steps look like a smooth hill with snow being 8 inches (20cm) deep covering them. I could not walk down that so I had to clear the snow away, and a shovel was the only way to do it. Now I am so sore I really do not want to go out, but I have no choice, since I need my medication. Oh well. Spring is coming. Sometime. But it will be a while yet.

With this latest snow, we have now had 78 inches (about 200cm) this winter. Good thing snow settles under it’s own weight, so our average snow on the ground is now about 45 inches (about 114cm). Some places have a little less, some a little more. I was not expecting so much snow this morning, so the birds were getting a bit anxious by the time I got out there to feed them. Their little footprints were covering the snow everywhere.

But it was too deep for them to dig down to whatever seeds were left from yesterday. Even the hanging feeders had so much snow on them the birds were unable to get at the seeds. I should really have one like I had last winter that the bear destroyed last spring. But they were not available this winter for some reason. The one odd looking chickadee feeder was okay, so the chickadees had seeds. I noticed there was even a redpoll sitting right inside of it feasting away.

There are lots of evening, and even several pine, grosbeaks this morning. Plus dozens of redpolls hopping around everywhere looking for food. There must have been some new ones show up because of the snow. I am sure there are now 80 to 100 redpolls again. Well, I must get ready to go out, thank you for reading, have a fabulous Friday and God bless!

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

©2022 Steve McLeod.