Carolina in the sunrise

My little Carolina Wren has found a friend and they seem to spend the evenings on my balcony. How wonderful it is to be awakened each day by their bubbling song. . .hopefully my neighbors appreciate it too!

Work up on the cabin is proceeding as the electrical rough-in work is nearly complete - one or two more trips should do it. After the electrical is ready, it will be time to start on the kitchen and bath with cabinets, appliances, and flooring - construction is so much more satisfying when I get to do the work myself.

Great Backyard Bird Count results

Each year I try to participate in the GBBC sponsored by Cornell Lab of Orinthology. This year, as in the past, I was able to count birds for both my apartment in Ann Arbor and for my mother's feeder in Bay City. Here are the results:

Ann Arbor - balcony feeder and view
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Trumpeter Swan
Mallard
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
American Coot
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren - Came up to bird feeder!
American Robin
European Starling
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
House Sparrow

and

Bay City yard feeder area and view
Canada Goose
Mallard
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
American Robin
European Starling
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Great Backyard Bird Count

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count sponsored by Cornell Lab of Orinthology. I always try to file a report for Ann Arbor where I live and for Bay City where my mother lives. While the winter has been fairly mild until recently, the birds have been somewhat common - especially those that visit my balcony feeder. Today, in honor of the Bird Count, I was blessed with a not so common bird visiting the feeder:

A Carolina Wren!

"I'm sure there must be a weevil in there someplace!"

From the Frozen Mitten

Hello from Michigan!

The last two weeks have more than made up for our lack of winter weather. The first bit saw us suffering through below zero degree air temps with wind chills into the -20s/-30s F! and not a day of missed work or school for me. Last night we got another bone chilling snow storm that dropped and drifted 5-8 inches of new snow, so its no work or school for me today!

Having the day off is a good thing as I have much to get done after being the rut of winter - awake - work - dinner - some TV - bed and then do it all again the next day.

It's been too cold to venture north to my new cabin to continue the work there, but the nice weatherman is promicing above freezing temps for next week. Hopefully that will give me a few days to catch up.

Ah well, it won't be long and Spring will eventually get here and the garden season will be upon us all.

Brrr edition

The current arctic blast has drop the temperatures down into the low single digits and it looks like it will get colder overnight as there isn't much of a cloud cover. Having been around the block for a number of years, this cold reminds me of any stretch when I was living in Cincinnati during the late 70s and early 80s.

As I recall it was in January when the air temperature was around 25 but we were expecting one of these Alberta Clippers to drop the temperature in the next 24 hours. As I recall, the drop ended up over 50 degrees straight down and with the wind chill the feels like temperature was around -40 something. Not only was school cancelled, but my apartment complex lost electrical service and the cold work me around 8 AM. Luckily, my favorite restaurant had power and I spent the next 24 hours there waiting for electricity and heat. Hopefully, this blast will not be that bad.