Happy New
Year!!
January in
the Okanagan—the start of spring!
After a
chilly December, we were surprised to be ushered into a mild January. By the middle of the month, we had received
11.2 mm of rain and our snow level had gone from 12” to 6” in four days.
The warmer
temperatures meant a lot of fog and cloud, but with the nice temperatures no
one was complaining.
For us, it
meant an early start on spring phenomena:
roof avalanches.
Witness the
picture of the roof from the outside:
And from
the inside:
It meant
that we needed to be very careful when we were standing nearby. The excesses fell off with resounding bangs
and crashes.
The
Wildlife Story
After obtaining numerous bird pictures by having the camera mounted near the feeders, I decided
for a change of locale near a commonly used deer trail. This was not a success. Nary a deer passed the camera.
In the
meantime, we were quite excited to find elk tracks in the yard, leading up to
the bird feeders! This was a first in
five years for us. The prints are LARGE
and we saw characteristic signs of the snow being pawed away to expose the
ground for grazing. Subsequently, we saw
two more days with fresh elk tracks.
Since I am not entirely stupid, I moved the game camera back to the area
of the bird feeders. What can I say—nary
an elk passed by.
Mr. Stag
Mule Deer was more than happy to clean up cracked corn on the ground underneath
the feeders.
This will
be a fairly short blog this month—stay tuned for an update within the week.
Thanks for
visiting!
