Saturday, January 16, 2010

Aerie Report January 16, 2010

The overnight low Friday into Saturday was just 29 degrees and when the sun came up this morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky. No wind either. As a result it got up to 49 degrees at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Won't last, though. It's going to get cold tonight and there's a chance of some freezing rain and ice in the morning before switching to snow late. It's already below freezing outside at 6 PM.

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Terry and I took a nice drive today to see if we could locate the house Terry's cousin and my bud put a bid on. Mapquest told us it was just 36 miles from us by road but it looks to be considerably less as the crow flies as the route is Z-shaped. We believe we located the home but could not see it from the road. It's on top of a hill and has a long driveway.

Still, it was good to get out and about taking roads we had not been on before and exploring. We haven't really done that sort of thing for a long, long time. Probably since before my daughter was born--and she'll be 30 years old a week from Monday. We ended with lunch at The Native Bagel in Wellsboro before going home to the hungry horde of Chester, Shadow and Julie.

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I had intended to go out birding tomorrow, but between the forecast freezing rain and the fact that the lakes (Hammond, Tioga, Cowanesque) all seem to be completely frozen, I may not have many good places to go. We say ice fishermen on Cowanesque today in pretty good numbers. It's been so cold for so long that I'm sure the ice is pretty darn thick. Last year I was seeing Canada Geese and Snow Geese on the west end of the lake where the river enters. This year it's all ice even well up the inlet. We did see some open water on Pine Creek where it crosses Route 6 west of Wellsboro. Perhaps the Canyon Country would be a good place tomorrow if the rain and freezing rain hold off.

2 comments:

RT said...

I saw a couple of blue jays last week. Is that normal for South Jersey in the winter? I don't recall ever seeing them during this time of the year.

joated said...

RT, Blue Jays are amongst the common winter birds for points much, much further north than southern NJ. (I've got 10 to 15 regulars at the Aerie's feeders and usually see/hear them around the Bolt Hole in the southern Adirondacks.) Seeing them in Burlington or Camden counties area should come as no surprise. You might say they are a dime-a-dozen.
Still, that bright blue in the midst of winter's grays...priceless.