Just below freezing at dawn, and still nippy out now. I define “nippy” as: the mug of hot tea turns cold in my hands in less than 5 minutes.
I meant to post yesterday because our weather was interesting. At dawn and through the early morning it was cold and overcast, alternating between light drizzle and light “snow” or “snow hail”. I don’t really know what to call that precipitation, maybe some Eskimo words would be helpful here. It was spherical, heavy, and flaky all at the same time. Yesterday’s tea time was cut short by a sudden burst of the “snow hail” attacking me on the porch.
The finches are here in great abundance now, and the juncos seem to cover nearly every inch of ground. I finally managed to see a flock of cranes a few days ago by looking up up up when I heard them. This winter I'd like to become better at identifying the sparrows. We definitely see white-crowned sparrows in the yard. Now I'm trying to figure out if I'm seeing rufous sparrows as well, or if they are only 1st winter white-crowned. (To the birders: yes, I'm looking for throat stripes, as the distinction between “rufous” and “brown” seems a bit fluid.)