Some Perspective

This past Christmas weekend, the Canadian Prairies has had historically mild temperatures.

This is what it looks like around here, as of December 25, 2011.  The location is a few miles south of my town.

At Boundary Dam reservoir...only a thin skin of ice at Sunset Boat launch.  Normally, this would all be frozen solid and dotted with ice-fishing shacks.

This was what was going on outside the front door of my house on October 27, 2010


Oh dear, and at the top of this photo, I can see the huge trunks of my neighbour's big, beautiful spruce trees.  I miss them so much.   Their fate was also snow-related.  A very nasty late April blizzard brought them down.

Snowy Owls on Christmas Day

Three more Snowy Owls (Nictea scandiaca) yesterday.  I hope they are finding enough food.   We always have a few Snowys down here in the Winter.  Delightful to see always, but not uncommon.  This year, there are so many and many reports of Snowys far South of the normal range.  Unfortunately, many are likely verging on starvation.   
 

Too bad it isn't quite warm enough to bring the gophers (Richardson's Ground Squirrels, Urocitellus richardsonii) out of hibernation - we have a lot of them...
 

Nice day, for December 25th, with +4C air temperature, high thick cloud and a fairly stiff breeze.

All these photos are the same individual.  It fence-post hopped as I tagged along behind in my car, hoping to get a decent shot of two....everything is a little fuzzy.  2012 Resolution #2, work on my photography skills.

Now, then, is this a female or is it a 1st year male?  The males become whiter as they age, with the very whitest being older males.

It was quite a large bird.  I'm tending to think Adult Female.  The females are larger than the males - as is the case with other owl species.
 

Other birds found during my drive around yesterday include:
1 male Gadwall at the city sewer lagoons.  Also at the lagoons, a Northern Pintail drake and a Green-winged Teal (either a female or a juvenile).  

At Boundary reservoir, 5 Ring-necked Ducks, several American Coots, a pair of Hooded Mergansers (male displaying), thousands of Mallards and Canada Geese.  

I saw a few Cackling Geese mixed with the larger Canadas  when scanning flocks feeding. 

Christmas 2011

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Notice anything....anything unusual about this photo.....anything, er, missing?

No Snow!

Okay, personally, I absolutely love this because I no longer want to do anything in the order of outdoor Winter sports and activities.  Besides that, we cannot handle much
Spring runoff, so the less snow the better.  The sloughs and ponds are full (iced-over now, but full).  My area had historic flooding Spring 2010. 

Apparently, this Winter may be the warmest on record for Saskatchewan.  Yeah, Climate Change. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/12/24/sk-warm-chr.html

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/12/23/394922/global-warming-hates-a-white-christmas/