Monday, January 26, 2009

Colorful feather

It's tiny, about an inch long, and I don't know to whom it belonged. Your guess is as good as mine! Pileated woodpecker? I don't know but I noticed it today towards the bottom of China Valley. I quickly looked around to see if it had drifted away from the remains of someone, some bird I mean. I didn't find any remains. Anyway it looked good against the Rubus calycinoides.

It felt far colder today than it was (~30F); there was a dampness in the air that penetrated. We had light snow off and on though not enough to amount to anything. Because it barely reached freezing the flakes didn't melt and I was able to examine then with a lens, but the beautiful crystals had been compressed into little "snowballs". More snow is predicted for late tonight and most of tomorrow, but not in any quiantity; we are expecting less than 3 inches. Still, that would be more snow than we had last year. Thanks to my obsession with weather, I know that temperatures are supposed to be cold but not too cold for about a week and a half and then heat up. AccuWeather predicts 4 days in a row with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s! starting Friday next. I know enough to take this optimistic forecast with a grain of salt, but it will be the second week of February by then and spring will be on its way so anything could happen. Temperatures in the mid-twenties last week in Wildwood, Florida somehow didn't disrupt plumbing in the Florida house. The tenants are in and happy; their first day it got up to 81F apparently an improvement over the weather in Buffalo.

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