MORNING WALK AFTER RAIN

We’ve had a lot of wet weather during the past few days.

There were even some scary-looking clouds that passed by without doing damage. Yesterday morning the weather had been dry long enough to go for a walk, and calm enough not to get blown away by wind. There were plenty of tracks left by wild animals in the mud. Skunks,

Deer,

And tracks too narrow to be cows, and too big to be deer. Elk were a possibility, but then, across the river I saw…

…a yearling moose.

It raised the hair on its hump and tried to look brave and tough. But was not courageous enough to leave Mom.

She was not sufficiently concerned to even get up. In fact, if the young one had stayed low in the brush, I would have walked by without knowing they were there.

I decided my best option at that time was to continue on my way.

BIRD WATCHING

Our bird feeder gets the usual visitors...

chickadees, sparrows,

pine siskins, goldfinches. The latest visitors to stop by on their way north have specialized beaks. At first glance you may think there is something wrong with them.

They are Red Crossbills, although the female is more yellow. Their odd-shaped bills are used to pry open pine cones to get at the seeds. They travel in flocks and are pretty greedy. It only took them a day to eat half the seeds in the feeder.

Despite their fierce appearance they don't seem aggressive. At least they share better than the pine siskins. But they are really taking advantage of the free food to fuel up for the rest of their trip.

SNOW ROLLERS

Maybe they couldn't wait to try out their hay bailer.

(Borrowed from the National Weather Service) On the evening of March 31st, 2009, Tim Tevebaugh was driving home from work east of Craigmont in the southern Idaho Panhandle (see map below). Across the rolling hay fields, Tim saw a very usual phenomena. The snow rollers that he took pictures of are extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds. These snow rollers formed during the day as they weren't present in the morning on Tim's drive to work. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/photo_gallery/snow_rollers.php






For those who can't open the link: here is one of the photos.