Spring SNOW!

It began as rain, but around 6AM the snow came down, and by 6Pm this evening we have over 6.5" of heavy, wet snow. The wind occasionally will pick up, but so far no damage.

This was my flowering crab tree yesterday.

This is what it looks like this morning. The branches are loaded with heavy wet snow, and are bending down to the ground. Good thing I took pictures before all this..

A disgusted Chipping sparrow doesn't like the snow

The chicks are now 1 month old. They are doing well, and will soon be moving to their new digs out of our garage. The chicks head with the X on it is Crush, the survivor chick.
Have a great rest of the week.

It's Monday

We woke up this morning to rain and a quite humid  day. It remained this way till right afternoon when the sun came out and was a glorious rest of the day. No fire in the wood stove needed tonight. This male Goldfinch doesn't seem to mind the rain.

Took a ride this afternoon, and I spotted some Cowslip growing along side a small stream. Spring is here for sure.

As promised, here is a picture of the "peeps". They are growing like weeds, and will be moving into their new digs in about 2 weeks. They are so funny to watch, and are now testing their wings. It's difficult to get good pictures of them as they seem to be on the move all the time. No longer are they little balls of yellow fluff. Now they are getting the red color they are noted for.
The weather forecast for us tomorrow is high winds, and temps in the 80"s. A cold front moving through later, and that makes me nervous. A perfect tornado recipe!

World Bird Wednesday

Below is the story I promised about the survival chick. Not what you might think for World Bird Wednesday, but it is about a bird.

 We have 16 of these little girls in our basement. They will be 2 weeks old next Monday.

Last Wednesday morning I went to the basement to check on them and change their water. We have a 1 gallon waterer in the brooder pen. I took it outside emptied it out, then washed it and refilled it. Took it back down stairs and placed it back in the brooder. Thursday around 1PM, I once again went down and took the waterer out to change it, and with horror noticed a baby chick had been trapped beneath that waterer! She had been under there for at least 16 hours, and she must have scooted under it when I put it down on Wednesday morning. The poor thing was flattened but still alive. I picked her up and immediately placed her beak in the water, which has medicine. I did this 3 or 4 times, and she began to swallow. Thinking she should need warmth and rest, I put her under the warming lights, telling her how sorry I was all the time. Anyway I went down about 20 minutes later and did the same drinking thing. Then I mixed some of the water with some of their feed to make a gruel, and gave it to her through an eye dropper. She did eat, and later amazingly she was able to stand. We replaced the lights in the brooder with red lights to discourage the chicks from pecking each other, in hopes the rest would leave the little one alone. We've been keeping an eye on her, and so far so good. She is doing well! Can you believe it? If all goes well in about a week or so, I'm going to send in a survival story to the hatchery where we got these chicks.

The little chick that we now call "Crush" is growing. She had "pasty butt" too, and had to have a mini bath, but now she is up and running again.

The picture shows Crush and she is in the back with a dark spot on her head.
If you would like to see more bird shots, and a awesome meme just click on http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com

 

Overcast Sunday

Here is another shot of one of the many Goldfinches I have. They are everywhere, and the males are getting their Spring colors more every day.

Friday night we had a strong storm with a cold front blow through here, and we had a brief heavy downpour with lots of  hail stones.

We took a ride last week to check on the Great Blue heron rookery, and I did see several birds on the nests. Last Spring a early nasty Spring storm blew some of the nests out of the trees, but there are still at least 6-7 left. I'll keep an eye on them.

The peeps we have in our basement are growing like weeds. They are 1 week old today, and I have quite a survival story to post, but will save it for another day. Check back. It's a really good story.