Winter Storm Watch

We've had several days of varying amounts of snow, hail, and wind, but the worst of the most recent winter storm watch undoubtedly hit today. First thing this morning I put some fresh seeds on top of the snow and it didn't take me long to have some birds on the porch even before it really got light out. I can only imagining spending a night like last night outside, let alone when you're that small! By the way, that's not fog in the background, but mostly blowing snow:

Here are a few other wintery scenes from around the marina, later in the afternoon after it got light out and some more snow had fallen:

Snow pattern on a roof

After failing to get all the way home from work in my low-rider, two wheel drive car (I walked the last quarter-mile), I was amazing at all the bird activity. Juncos, chickadees, song sparrows, nuthatches. I saw my first Anna's hummingbird (93) of the year - though somewhat surprisingly not at the feeder I hung out this morning and refilled a couple of times throughout the day as it turned to slush. I imagine it must be hard to find food out there as a hummingbird on a day like this, though our overwintering Anna's eat sap and insects in addition to flower nectar.

I was glad I stocked up on suet before the storm hit, and so was this nuthatch. Look at that tongue visible in his beak!

There was activity in the water, too. A river otter came by. This pied-billed grebe was here this morning and back in the afternoon - I only ever see them in our marina when their preferred freshwater habitat freezes over.

A group of four hooded mergansers (2 males and 2 females) were fishing in the same area as the grebe. When they took flight I had the camera ready, resulting in this photo that I like a lot:

The belted kingfisher was around, too, though instead of taking one of her usual more prominent perches she found a place to sit that was a little more out of the wind:

We walked to town to get a few groceries, and because of the snow I took my camera, too. I was happy I did when I saw this dog patiently waiting outside the store:

It will be interesting to see what the next few days are like! I don't mind a little bit of this winter weather, with the exception of having to worry about getting to work and back each day!