Snow Day

Looks like minimal damage to the trees around my house. Nothing big and obvious down as far as I can see.

Streets are slushy but I walked around and found no ice.

A small tree (or large photinia shrub, actually) toppled this morning a couple of mins after I took the first picture; you can see the branches in the upper right corner of the the picture. It was scraggly, bent, and probably needed to go anyway.

Didn't land on anything and didn't appear to cause any damage at all. That's cool, because it could have fallen on the glass greenhouse in the background there. Yay, our team! I've got a small chainsaw and axe so I can probably remove most of it myself. We'll see.

bird party

Big flock of cedar waxwings at the backyard fountain today. They drank water but ignored the bread chunks I had put out for the sparrows earlier.

redbirds

Last week a little flock of redbirds landed in our water fountain. I assume they are some kind of finch; I'm guessing the house finch given the absolute lack of crest, the rounded upper bill, and the longer tail.

Just before the freeze hit I made sure the fountain was topped off; it leaks a bit and needs a fill every few weeks. There were many squirrels and birds drinking out of it today so it may be the only running/unfrozen water in the immediate area.
This terrible pic was taken through my kitchen window with a regular point/shoot digicam so it's a wonder it came out at all. There are 4 birds in this pic. At the time I went for the cam there were 8 of them splashing around at the same time. I'd only seen onesy-twosies before.