Looking down the lake yesterday

With flurries off and on yesterday down the lake from the Outlook Pt. it looked like this.  This AM woke to about an inch of snow which quickly bought out the plow truck and sanded the road.

click for larger picture

Hydro crew clearing lines and preventative work

Here is a video of a couple of trees being taken down across the road from me.   One has already been taken down. Two big poplars were taken down in no time.  By the way that is a woman up in the bucket who knows how to take down a tree in no time.

Cleaning up around the feeders

All those small sunflower hulls are hard to pick up in the spring.  This year I raked the needles and twigs out and used the vacuum.  Works great, just looks funny.

Finally the snow is moving out, some warm days and some cool with lots of wind.  Not a lot of flooding and the lake is starting to go around the edges in some places.  Here's a new one of a Pileated Woodpecker.

Nice and warm today

Warming up a bit now, with a good breeze.  Water over some of the ice and snow starting to melt.  Here is a pic looking across the lake this evening.

 

The things you see out the window

Working at the computer and something caught my eye out the window.  A Pileated Woodpecker across the road in a dead tree.  One of the largest woodpeckers around these parts.  The camera was right beside me...........................

then he left............

By the way I saw my first Robin yesterday, maybe spring is coming. Not so by the snow streaming past the window right now  5:23:PM  DST.

Starry nights

The last few days when the moon hasn't come up early the dark clear skies have been good for checking out the stars.   Here is a shot of Orion, the three stars are his belt and the vertical nebula and stars are his sword, off to the left is the brightest star Sirius. The reddish star above his belt is Betelgeuse.  Those lights are Old Reekie.

Hoary Redpoll

If you look at enough Redpolls all winter you may find a variant called a Hoary Redpoll. These birds have white in their feathers suggesting Hoar Frost hence a Hoary Redpoll. 

The Arctic redpoll, known in North America as the hoary redpoll, is a bird species in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in tundra birch forest. (Wikipedia) 

A short look at this mornings lunar eclipse

click on  the videos full frame to see a better view

Thought I had the clock set this morning but something went wrong.  I did capture a little piece of it sinking below the trees, because of the time we only got to see a partial look at the eclipse.