Tag Archives: cold

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freeze

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: thaw.

I walked through Kai Tai Nature Park during the snow last month. Usually there are lots of ducks, sometimes geese, red wing blackbirds and a blue heron or eagle. This is taken with a zoom. The ducks were hiding out and the seagulls standing rather forlornly on the ice, waiting for the thaw.

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winter bird

Our snow is gone, but I heard on bird note how the Anna’s hummingbirds survive. One morning the temperature here was 14 degrees F, and then the hummingbird was out as soon as it was light. Dive bombing me as I brought out the feeder after thawing it. Bird note says that they can slow their metabolism, like a mini hibernation, during the freezing temperatures. This helps them expand their range and get a jump on the humming birds that go south.

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flare

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flare.

Tictoc’s ruff of feathers look black from the side, but flare to scarlet and pink when seen straight on. That flare must help this small bird chase the larger ones away.

"Tictoc", a hummingbird, in a snowy lilac.

Tictoc has been chasing chickadees and towhees away over the weekend, no respect for larger size. But I had a second hummingbird sitting in the lilac at the same time.

Female Anna's hummingbird sitting in a snowy lilac bush.
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sanctuary

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: sanctuary.

We are in a very big winter storm in the Pacific Northwest. Some years we get no snow, but right now we have 6 inches and still snowing. I have heat and light and power and tea. And food. So home is the sanctuary right now.

Is the snow threatening?

Shadow on snow: a tree or a monster?

Or beautiful?

Trees in the dark, covered with snow and back lit by a street light.

And yes, I took these this morning, at about 4:30 am.

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door to blue

For Norm2.0’s Thursday doors.

This is the arched entry from my house. I was trying to capture the blues in the snow on Monday as the evening light dimmed. It’s time I photographed a lot more of my local doors, since Port Townsend has many building built from 1860-1880. Not my house, it’s from 1929. More doors to follow soon.

evening light looking through arch at a snow covered yard, all tones of blue.
archway in the evening, with a hanging birdbath and snow on a yard, all blue light
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me in meetings

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: mettlesome.

I took this Monday, after walking to my cold dark clinic, pulling paper back up charts and calling everyone to cancel.

Which duck would I be? The crested one, asleep.

I do not sleep through my Rotary meetings nor my clinic meetings, since my clinic has been open for ten years. However, I was very skilled at sleeping though hospital administration meetings. I was tired from being on call!

It was still freezing out, yet this small duck slept on. I think it’s a hooded merganser. I thinks its a pretty mettlesome place to nap.

four ducks on a cold pond: a mallard and a hooded merganser sleeping, a wigeon and another mallard