Now That's What I Call S-N-O-W-!

Tomorrow is the first day of winter, but I think someone forgot to tell Mother Nature because she sent the snow a bit early!  We live in a snow belt and got dumped on here in Loon Lake over the last couple of days... 29 inches over night!  No worries about having a white Christmas this year.  But I am a little worried that I didn't get my Christmas shopping done, and we have family festivities to attend, and driving into town (we live about 30 miles from the big city of Spokane) could be difficult to say the least.  Only one of our cars has snow tires, two have 4-wheel drive and my poor husband's van has neither.  He had to stay home from work today because there was just too much snow this morning to go anywhere, and someone has to dig us out!

The poor pets are having a hard time getting around in all of this snow.  You would think our chow Cubby Bears would be better at it then our chihuahua Jack E. Cheez, but no... Jack's not scared at all, it's Cubby who is the pansy!

Even the cat Stanley Oliver is fascinated with the snow.  He hopped and skipped right out in the deep snow and over to under the picnic table.  Getting back he wasn't so bouncy.

Earlier this week, we didn't have quite as much snow, but enough to cover the ski docks.  There was one day that a Great Blue Heron spent most of the day roosting on the ski dock, sleeping as it snowed. 



This isn't the first time I've seen the heron out in a snow storm.  A couple of years ago, when the fish pen was in the bay over the winter, the resident Great Blue Heron named Bruchis would hang out daily.  Check out this video I took of Bruchis in a snow storm...



Mid-winter Blues

I don't know about you, but I've had about enough of winter. Spring has been on my mind lately. Ice covers the ground and the lake. Well, almost all of the lake. The neighborhood fish pen stays unfrozen, as they keep the water moving inside the pen. So like I've said before, there is a Belted Kingfisher that hangs out at the fish pen, and catches a snack or two every day. Now the last couple of days, we have a new visitor to the fish pen... a Great Blue Heron! It's an unusual time of year to see one of these magnificant birds here on the lake. I am loving the added wildlife and birds that have been attracted by the fish pen. If you haven't already, check out the otter that visited before the ice took over the lake in my earlier blog. This Great Blue Heron spends hours patiently waiting on the ledge of the fish pen. And I have spent quite some time patiently waiting for the heron to do something exciting like catch a fish! I have seen it about to strike, but then doesn't. I couldn't get quite close enough on my balcony to get a decent shot, so I decided today to get my boots on, and some warm clothes and head outside with my camera and tripod. Now this is quite the feat, because it is very icy around my house, and now we have a new cover of snow, so it's hard to see where exactly the ice is. So I grab my ski-pole, and head out with my gear. Unfortunely, the little dog gets out when I open the door to get my tripod through. Darn it, I didn't want the dog to scare the bird. But I continue on my task, and head across the icy ground and sneak behind the bushes and hide behind a boat house on the beach. Here I set up my tri-pod and get all focused in on my special winter visitor. I snap a couple shots. Maybe half a dozen, and our big dog comes to see what's up. Oh hello! I see you are trying to photograph that big bird over there... Let me help by running out on the ice and scaring him off! Do you think I might have been lucky enough to get a flight shot? No, no, no. I was in the middle of saving a 7-shot series, and missed the window of opportunity. Thanks doggy!

Well, at least the shots were a little better than the ones way up from my balcony. I still plan to stalk this fella to get a better shot. Would be nice if the weather wasn't quite so gloomy!

After the dogs had scared away my chances of getting any more heron pictures for the time being, I still wanted to take advantage of being out in the snow in the woods. So I set up my tripod on the patio and decided to get a few shots of the Red-breasted nuthatches that were at my suet feeders. There were 4 of them there at one time, how fun! Do you think I could get a shot of them, before little dog, and his Unlce kitty ran over to the tree and off went the nuthatches. Next time I will have to be more careful about the pets getting outside! But hey, they were excited about the bird visitors too! Little dog barks at the birds when he sees them outside. All is not lost, there is a Song Sparrow that has been in the gang with the nuthatches, and it is still in the bushes. I take a couple of crappy shots of it, before I hear a Raven overhead bickering at it's partner. This causes the Song Sparrow to freeze and hide behind the branches for a couple of minutes or more. The Raven takes off, and down the tree comes a Downy Woodpecker. They seem to hang with the nuthatches and the sparrow, all of them coming to the feeders at the same time. I am happy to be on the patio, with the tripod and the camera all ready to go. Didn't last long with my friends the pets outside. Oh well, it was an adventure that I enjoyed. Got me out of the house, and was good for the winter blues.

New Camera

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I sure did! Santa brought me a brand new superzoom camera! The Fuji Finepix HS10 with a 30x zoom lens (up to 720mm). Great for birding! I couldn't wait to get a shot at the Belted Kingfisher that has been hanging daily at the local fish pen. My old camera just didn't have enough zoom to get in as close as I'd like. But with this new camera, I was sure to get up close. Today, I look down at the fishpen to see if my buddy was there, and what do I see? The fishpen has collapsed! The frame and netting above water level had fallen. Then this afternoon, I see two guys in a canoe, paddling with snow shovels while they broke the ice around the fish pen. That's something I'd never seen before, canoeing with snow shovels! They were able to get the frame off of the pen for repairs. So I'm wondering where my kingfisher friend is today? Then I see him, perched on our dock on the high dive frame. He loves that spot, but has been favoring the fish pen lately. With the fish pen in repair, his roosting spot was gone! Good for me though, because he is now much closer, and a perfect scene for my new camera!!! I rush to get it, and am happy to snap a few photos of my friend. I haven't ventured outside of the Auto mode with scene recognition. But after I got a few shots, I decided to try the multiple shot mode. Boy, oh boy, did it shoot 7 shots quicker than spit! Then I tried the mode that shoots 3 shots at closer zoom each time. I think I'm gonna like that mode. Since we are in the middle of a snow storm, almost blizzard conditions at times, my pictures weren't as clear as I would have liked. But they are certainly the closest shots I've ever gotten of a Belted Kingfisher!