This is what I would be doing if we had enough snow:
One of my neighbors has a 10ft igloo made from packed snow blocks. He has it covered with tarps in hopes it will last until the snow tomorrow.
Whoa! That must look weird from the inside.
We don’t usually have a bird feeder, but we’ve been putting seed out
ever since we got the heavy snowfall. Yesterday I saw one of these.
(This is not my pic, found it on a birdwatching site)
It had an inky black head and bib, bright white belly and strikingly bright
rusty sidestripes. I’d never seen one before. When I looked it up it
(it meaning the book, not the bird) said “Oregon Junco”-apparently no longer
considered a separate species from the “usual” junco,because there’s
intergrading forms.
Here’s what Peterson’s guide says.
East: a rare straggler, but occasional birds turn up nearly every winter
at feeding trays as far east as the Atlantic seaboard.
This must have been the one they were talking about 
“Oregon Junco Goes To Washington” doesn’t strike me as a good movie title
but what the … let’s see the script
These storms have moved a number of species further east. There is a Varied Thrush in Fairfax Co., VA. Unfortunately the storms have also taken a toll on the Great Horned Owl nestings, destroying nests and freezing nestlings. We currently have both Juncos here plus Chewinks.
We have a few juncos at my backyard feeder. We also have three male cardinals that go after the sunflower seeds in the feeder at the same time, something that you will not see in the mating season when they are very territorial. We also have flocks of house sparrows, starlings, and crows. I have a heater in the birdbath, so when it is below freezing the water will remain unfrozen. It’s amazing that many of the birds will still take their bath when it is 20 degrees F outside.
When I was studying ornithology years ago, we had three juncos to keep track of. Lumping them together as one species makes a lot of sense to me. I’m in favor of doing that with a lot of other birds that are difficult to identify. I suggest a new category for “little gray bird”.
welcome to the deep south
still snowing heavily
me cat is trying to ripen an avocado for me
i placed it under belly
anchored out in a snow storm
Tansy
Personally I’m a splitter, not no lumper, but I call all the little gray birds Empidonax for short.
I thought Roger Tory Peterson got us started down that road with “Confusing Fall Warblers.”
Don’t look now, but there’s a whacking big ice shark about to bite that man’s head off.
That’s quite a handsome pink beak. I’d have named it the ‘lipstick junco’.
We had some lovely sunshine today. It looks like the roads are clearing off.
Meanwhile, the melting water drips down from the roof …and it forms very strange icicles.
Here’s how they were a few days ago
and here’s what they look like now.
Caroluna, your subjects bow to you. You are the queen of our alternate reality.
Alternate reality?
…Yeah… I guess that’s what you call it… after being stuck in the
house for a week…with nothing to look at but snow…and icicles…
and more snow… and the occasional bird…
here is some snow…where it belongs
If you spray-paint that brown, you could probably make a nice piece of furniture out of it!
Ephemeral furniture made daily.