Yesterday morning (12-23) Jane and I resumed our daily mile-and-a-half
hikes around the property, after a hiatus of one day. Friday morning the
near blizzard was just a bit too severe. Yesterday was a bit more like a
sporting bit of mountaineering, with the mud mostly frozen beneath the
drifts. It's hard to really say, but I'm guessing we received 5 to 6 inches
of rather wet snow. It had drifted in mounds along the pasture centerline
fencerow across the hilltop. In the forest, it was plastered by the wind to
the side of trees, an interesting visual feature. We took along our point
and shoot cameras to document season's first significant snowfall.

Not many birds around in the forest. At one spot there was a small group of
chickadees and a couple golden-crowned kinglets.

On the bottom part of the home stretch, as we were slogging through the
ravine below the sheep pasture, a flock of about ten gulls appeared,
circling in the sky above the treetops, no doubt ring-bills from the nearby
Dillon Reservoir area, a mile or two distant as the gull flies.
Interestingly, a lone screaming killdeer joined them.

The feeders attracted the usual mobs of house finches, goldfinches, house
sparrows, with all the other common feeder birds as well. One of the house
finches had a bright orange-yellow rump, which definitely drew my eye.

Bob Evans
Geologist, etc.
Hopewell Township, Muskingum County

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