Black and white world
The wolf moon
Longest icicle
Category Archives: winter
Honestly, I have no idea where the time goes. I finally just let go of November images. November was mostly warmish and very wet. And December has been cold and dry. Seems like every other day we get an inch or two of fluffy powder snow that can be swept rather than shoveled from the porch. Quite different from the heavy wet snow that fell last year early in the winter. I have gotten used to the cold and if the temperature gets up to freezing, it seems warm, almost balmy! Skate and classic skiing has been excellent on the Methow Trails! Morning walks have been beautifully illuminated with wondrous light.
The mountains of the Pasayten Wilderness as seen from our house
A view of Bridgeport and Chief Jo Dam on the Christmas Bird Count
Gray Partridges bury themselves in the snow near Bridgeport
Growing icicles
Morning
Ice on Goat Wall looming above the ski trail
Skate skiing near Mazama
Christmas tree along the ski trail
Morning
Morning
Morning
Oh look, Sky has a stick
Along our road
Northern Pygmy Owl
This bromeliad has covered itself with flowers
Sparkly roof snow
Yarrow with caps of snow
Caption this
Suspension bridge on the Methow Trails ski trail
View from the suspension bridge
Luna
Sky
Our road
Lots of birds have enjoyed our feeders this winter. The feeders are set up so we can see them from our main windows throughout the day. A tiny Northern Pygmy-Owl has been terrorizing the even tinier Common Redpolls. Red Crossbills (yes, their bills are crossed) show up most every day and there is, occasionally an American Goldfinch. Most years we have lots of goldfinches and House Finches but not this year.
On days when the temperature gets up to freezing and the sun is shining the honeybees will work at cleaning out their hives. It seems so strange to see dead bees in the snow. It’s supposed to be a good thing – an indicator that the live bees are keeping things tidy in there.
We had a tree-climbing expert come in and install a new nest box from Nice Nests, high up in our biggest dead ponderosa pine tree. Hopefully the kestrel that was here earlier in the winter will return and raise some young birds in it next summer.
American Kestrel nest box
White-breasted Nuthatch
Common Redpoll
American Goldfinch
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbills
Common Redpolls and Pine Siskin
House Finches
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Red Crossbills
Here it is February already – more than a month into the new year. Time goes by so quickly. I made lots of images last month and finally got around to editing them.
We continue to get lots of snow and it is deep and perfect for winter activities. Ken’s brother stayed for a few days and tried his AT gear and his snowboard on the hill above us. It really made me want to get some back country skis.
Some days have had snow falling all day long and others have been brilliantly sunny. The frost and icicles have been amazing. Of course, we’ve had our share of shoveling. A friend gifted us his used snowblower and it was just in time. We were nearly overwhelmed with the amount of work. And then we had to have a big front loader come in and move the big berms left by the plow guy.
Here is a sampling of images from around our hillside.
Ken watching from below
Nice turns
Morning alpenglow
Morning alpenglow
frosty serviceberry leaves hanging on
It’s deep out there
Garden fence
You think this is deep? Now you can’t even see the window!
The river below us
Drip
Yesterday Juliet and I went birding in the Conconully and Okanogan Highlands regions of our county. Birding was slow with not a lot of active birds around but the light on the snow-covered hills was enough to make us stop repeatedly and comment about the beauty that lay before us.
We were surprised to find a Yellow-rumped Warbler along the Okanogan river and closed out our birding day watching a Short-eared Owl hunting at dusk.
I wonder if this is a type of sun dog?
The Okanogan Highlands offer endless vistas
A glorious sunset before we had to go down into the fog-filled valley
And at the end of the day we were wowed by the same sort of colors we saw early in the morning when we descended from the Loup into the Okanogan Valley
My Everyday Photos 