45 Minute Snow Storm

At 10:00 this morning, I noticed the wind had kicked up a bit, enough to cause the trees to sway, and that the temperature was dropping.

At 10:05 I noticed that it was snowing, pretty noticeably snowing, enough that I checked several windows and doors to make sure that I wasn’t just seeing older snow blowing from the roof.

It was definitely new snow, though it started as lots of tight little frozen pellets that looked like old style road salt, but falling steadily and evenly.

Now, as I write this post, it’s a steady snowfall and it’s sticking, with a good stiff breeze.

I saw the weather report change on a couple of sites as I refreshed, from “Overcast with a high of 40,” shortly before the snow started to “Wind warnings” to this from NWS:

A 50 percent chance of snow showers, mainly before 1pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Partly sunny, with a high near 41. Breezy, with a west wind 20 to 25 mph.

Still snowing. The image below is from 10:21 AM

The next image is from 10:22 AM

It’s 10:35 AM now and I’m seeing “Expect occasional snow to end at 10:45am,” and it’s 32° F. Currently the snow is in large chumps of flakes, some the size of nickels, or maybe quarters.

At 10:41 AM, the snow has stopped, though I see occasional drifting flakes, and the sun is out. I’d guess there are three inches of new fallen snow.

At 10:49 AM, the snow is absolutely stopped, and the sun is bright; the sky is blue. The weather report currently says “Expect occasional snow to end at 11:15 AM.”

By 11:30 AM, you wouldn’t know at first glance that we’d had three inches of snow. Unless you’re looking at a sheltered tree or fence post, it’s mostly gone.

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Mist

This morning, as soon as the sun rose enough to see, there was a lovely Maine mist filling the trees. I had to wait for enough light to take a picture, but you can still see the mist cloaking the top branches of the trees. You can also see last year’s squirrel nest (sometimes called a dray).

mist

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Squirrels

There are two species of squirrels pillaging the bird feeders. The Eastern Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis/i>) and the American Red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). The Red squirrel is generally viewed as a pest by local home owners because they’re notorious for invading homes and feasting on insulation (which they also use for nest materials) and the coating on wires (which often results in destroying home wiring systems).

The Eastern gray is the one that’s particularly greedy about bird seed; there are at least six individuals who regularly patrol, and I’ve seen as many as six at a time attempting to raid the feeders. They can’t really reach the seeds effectively because of the nature of the tube feeders.

But they’re perfectly willing to try. 

There’s also a single American Red squirrel visiting the feeders, though it usually spends most of its time on the ground, gleaning, it’s not above attempting the suet.

There are, by the way, mutated Gray squirrels, that, via a mutation, exhibit melanism and appear black, in other parts of Maine. They have black squirrels in Lincoln county, ME. We have black squirrels in Western Washington too.

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