Thursday, January 25, 2007

Ice and Snow

The ice storm ice lasted for almost a week, and there was damage to the trees, especially the ones standing by themselves in people's yards. Trees in the woods survived fairly well. A clump of big somethings on the riverbank, Norway maple I think, toppled over into the river. Looking at the bottom of the torn up patch of bank I see almost no roots!


There haven't been that many birds, the pair of swans and the mallards remain and Monday there was a flock of geese for a few hours. Last week there was a group of male goldeneye passing through, diving and swimming fast.

The last few days I've only seen one male goldeneye, a grebe, and the eternal mallards. Oh! and a kingfisher! He was sitting on a piece of wood sticking up several feet out of the water, just above the dam.

This morning there was a pretty good fall of snow, several inches. The mallards were doing their dabbling below the dam, I haven't seen that before. They usually prefer the calm water of the pond.

After the snow stopped, a small flock of goldeneye, three males and three females, were feeding above the dam. The males remind me of the penguins we saw in Milford Sound, with their rapid dives and flashes of white.