Monday is Shoveling Day........

Looking out this morning into our backyard area I could see more snow had built up on the evergreen trees. The sun is just starting to come up helping to give some special lighting effects. We were warmer yesterday at below freezing but today we have dropped into the big freeze.  It was -6.8 F when we first got up and it dropped to -10 F by the time breakfast was finished.  We will warm up to 15 degrees F.  as the sun will help to raise the temps a little bit.

Looking to the west we have another view of our snow covered world.  The snow is stuck to the southeastern side of the trees as the Arctic air swirled around the place in that direction. 

On Sunday the outside looked like this as one never saw the sun until late in the afternoon. The kind of light we had yesterday was more like night compared to the bright day we are now having.

I accidentally took a movie of this view yesterday and once I figure out how to edit it and share it I will.  The camera did a good job of catching the wind blowing the birch back and forth in the breezes.

The blob in the photo is another bluejay flying in or out of the scene. At one time there were actually six of them at the same time.  Two were in the standing feeder while these were hanging around the seed tray on the table. The snow has covered things so much that there isn't much of a way for them to get berries off of the bushes.  Also I had three male cardinals out there at one time and two female ones.  I went out three times yesterday to refill the trays and I will need to go out again soon this morning.

This guy has a prized seed that he will take off to a tree to break open. I don't know what kind of see that it is but there are some of them mixed in with the sunflower seed.

With it this snowy the birds tend to be tolerant of each other a little more than normal.  I do have a shot where the sparrows are waiting in a circle around the table feeder waiting for two bluejays to leave.

We are safe and warm inside today again as the roads are being cleared in which for people to travel.  Yesterday was a nontravel day as many who were out ended up in ditches.  The interstates were a great mess of cars and trucks in all ditches and medians.  Schools were canceled in the rural areas today but the big time larger schools had regular hours.  Gravel roads in the country may be cleared by tomorrow for the rural schools to be open. 

I have taken a lot of photos and it is hard to delete them but I have so many duplicates that I just trash the similar ones.  I shared a lot of shots on my Photo a Day blog even though I set that up as one photo per day.  I guess pictures can tell more about what is happening that the feeble few words I can muster.  I hope everyone is doing well out there and thanks for stopping by today.