Brutal winds!

If you are indoors today, looking out, it is a beautiful sunny day….check the thermometer though and the temperature hasn’t budged above –4 c

venture outside, especially anywhere exposed to the strong outflow winds and it is absolutely brutal! 

just since yesterday the areas of open water have frozen over with only a few open spots…notice the snow blowing across the surface of the ice.

Weather like this really isn’t that unusual for the estuary, we usually get at least one session of, for this area at least, extreme cold each winter…it is just a little later this time around.

The area can be a pretty barren looking waste land at such times.  There were a few ducks sheltering in both areas…

I didn’t attempt going anywhere closer for a clearer picture, as the last thing they need right now is to burn up much needed energy because of human interference.

heading home I attempted to get pictures of the blowing snow….didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped.

Like yesterday, all the smaller birds, including that big flock of Red-wing Blackbirds, are concentrated up in the residential areas around bird feeders.  I’ve just distributed the 2nd ice cream bucket full of seed for the day! 

And speaking of hunger…if you follow this blog you know I have been mentioning how the Bald Eagles that remain in the area (didn’t see any today) are hungry – well if you have watched the local TV news the last little while, or read today’s Globe and Mail, you will see that this is a wide spread problem.  Wildlife facilities are getting birds in that are so hungry they are literally dropping from the sky.  The problem is particularly intense on the east coast of Vancouver Island.  Bald Eagles gather there this time of the year, in preparation for feeding on the Herring run in early March – let us hope the Herring run is on time and in better shape than the almost non-existent Chum Salmon run was!  Bird’s, of course, require large amounts of energy just to stay warm in these sub-zero temperatures so many, if they can not find anything to eat,  may not make it until then.