Beware of falling ice????

Good morning, Everyone!

I woke up this morning to an odd sound. At first I thought a troop of squirrels was running around on my roof, but knowing the roof was icy, that didn't seem to make sense. Bright sun was streaming through my bedroom window, and when I peeked out, I thought, how odd that it's hailing while the sun is shining! Then I realized it wasn't hailing at all. The sight and sounds were made by chunks of ice falling from trees, wires, roofs, etc. The ice was melting so quickly in the sun that it didn't have time to liquify completely. Therefore, small icy chunks were raining down like little shards of glass. If you look carefully at the picture above you can see the ice chunks sparkling on the ground and in the street in front of my house. The chunks continued to "rain" down as I shot this picture, but I'm not sure if you can see them as they fall.

Front yard from a slightly different angle. If you enlarge the picture, perhaps you can see the ice falling against the dark background of the tree trunk.

As I type an hour after taking the pictures, it's still "raining ice", but now it's coming in fits and spurts--and driving my poor dog and cats nuts. They know "something" is on the roof, but can't figure it out. (My dog friend Cosmos would be totally freaking out!)

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time watching a very unusual bird feeding in my backyard. He looked sort of like a pigeon, but hopped instead of walking as pigeons do. Mostly black and white with a front that was either tan or dirty--hard to tell which-- he was rather aggressive, bluffing away the cardinals as they tried to alight nearby. I wanted to take his picture but was worried if I opened the back door, he'd fly off, which in fact he did. So I settled for trying for a shot of him through the glass half of the back door.

I apologize for the poor quality of this shot, but I think you can see "mystery bird" in the center. A female cardinal is perched on the feeder to the left, so you can get an idea of the relative size of Mr. Mystery Bird. Every time he moved he showed a different color pattern, mostly of black and white. His beak was fairly large and orange, but I couldn't get a good look at his feet to check color or shape. I went carefully through my bird book ("Birds of the Northern Hemisphere") but couldn't find anything that matched what I was seeing. The closest I found was a couple of species of gulls or terns. Since there are a lot of lakes in our area, we do have gulls, so maybe that's what he was. (The lakes were still frozen over yesterday, so I supposed the fishing wasn't too great.) We're located on the Mississippi Flyway, and get a lot of migrating birds, passing through on their way to and from their summer and winter habitats. Perhaps he was some exotic bird not native to the northern hemisphere, which would explain my not being able to ID him from my book . Mr. Mystery Bird hung around the entire day, stoking up on sunflower seeds. I also saw him pulling a worm out of the mushy ground around the base of the feeder, so he isn't a picky eater.

This morning one brave squirrel is at the feeder, but most of the birds are hanging back, apparently not wishing to get conked on their little heads by chunks of ice that continue to fall. (Some of the chunks are several inches long, and I wouldn't want to get conked either!) In any case Mr. Mystery Bird is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he's on his way north with a full belly and a clear day for flying. Bon voyage, Mystery Bird!

I mentioned the cardinals, and I always have lots of them, since sunflower seeds are one of their favorite repasts. I should have posted this picture last week, since I took it when the snow was falling, but between having camera problems and being anxious to post the retreat pictures, I omitted it, so I'm putting it up now. There were only a few birds cooperative enough to hang around while I shot this picture, but earlier I had counted at least 12 bright red male cardinals clinging to the bending, snow-laden bamboo. I don't much like winter, but sights such as this help relieve the tedium and inconvenience of ice and snow.

Today is my mother's 94th birthday. (Happy Birthday, Molly!) Since the ice is rapidly melting and the rest of today is predicted to be sunny and relatively mild, we have plans for an evening out to celebrate. More nasty weather is forecast for tomorrow, so we must party while we can! I promise pictures.