The snow showers and associated winds out of the west that developed last night continued through today. The sun peaked through a couple of times between showers. Despite regularly falling snow, it never got deeper than two or three inches. Above freezing temperatures made for heavy, wet snow that compacted under its own weight and melted a bit as well.
Thanksgiving’s 1.72 inches of precipitation was below the 2.13 inch record recorded in 1993. However, it did bring monthly totals closer to average. Month to date is 7.56″ only .77 inches behind the normal 8.33 inches.
I went for a drive before lunch. I hadn’t intended to go as far as Starrigavan. With snow on the road and oncoming traffic at a couple of places I would have otherwise made a left turn, I ended up going all the way.
I saw 15 Trumpeter Swans at Starrigavan, but none at Swan Lake.
Swan Lake was partially iced due to snow/slush consolidating. It was not quite enough to support the weight of birds. However, it was sufficiently solid they had to move through it like an icebreaker. (Mostly they didn’t seem inclined to move through it).
With daylight short, it’s the season of catching up on various things that have piled up over the past few months. Today I managed to get my inbox down under 15 (it had peaked at a bit over 200 recently). I also made it through most of the January-March days with photos remaining to be uploaded to iNaturalist.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
I watched a string of about fifteen ducks on Swan Lake lined up following an “icebreaker†duck dob it’s way through slush to reach some open water near shore where they must have wanted to feed. The dog and I paused for several minutes along the sidewalk below HPR while the lead duck bobbed up and down pushing past the bit of slush, we clapped when they made it! The trail they left in the shush was impressive.
Thanks for sharing your observation! I wonder if the ducks somehow picked the leader, if it that bird was just going where it wanted to and the others decided to follow since there was a path cleared.