21, 23 December

 ebird data (23 December) https://ebird.org/checklist/S77894450

Weather (data unavailable for 21 December)  23 December  8 am -2C, wind WSW 4;  1pm 5C, wind SSE 6

Tide:  (data unavailable 21 Dec)  23 Dec: 12:30  4.6m, falling


I had known that Monday wasn't going to be a day for the Estuary.  Heavy rain and possible snow was forecast.  But when I got up and saw huge wet snowflakes descending, it was plainly not a day to walk out into the woods.  In fact, a big limb from a fir tree over the road broke off and fell in early morning.  It's not common for snow to fall and remain on Vancouver Island--at least not in the seaside parts of the Island.  


I decided I would brave the elements and take a walk along the beach.  I wasn't alone in that idea--there were several hardy souls.  It was colder than most snowfalls because it was so wet.  Prairie snow is teeny dry flakes and really less cold than falling slush.

Anyhow, it was a different look 


...the stuff that looks kind of like dandruff is indeed very wet snow.

The beach looked very unlike the tourist photos, too:



Somehow it reminded me of some of the darker Scandinavian films I've seen...

and then, there's an arboretum in the park, and I don't think we'll see this real often:



By evening the snow in Parksville had changed to rain, but the higher elevations inland are still snowy and icy, I'm told.

...I'd planned to drive down to Nanaimo for one of my forays into "big box shopping" but postponed the drive until Tuesday.  I gather driving was actually a bit scary on the highway on Monday.  The whole province got clobbered by snow--it was, after all, the winter solstice.  My friends in Calgary say they really got hit pretty hard, too.

23 December,

Yesterday was really beautiful, if a still on the chilly side.  There was a hard frost in the morning, and the flooded paths were almost ready for ice skates.  (Just as well not--I'm not very good on skates!)








The Arrowsmith massif had regained its snow as had the logged off areas.  (Alas, those white bits lower down are not a ski hill, but clearcuts.)

It was a moderate tide and quite birdy.



Texada Island (visible across the water) had its snow mantle.  If you enlarge the photo you 'll see ducks offshore and gulls on the sandspit across the way.  As I counted ducks, two peregrine falcons came zooming out of nowhere, yelling angrily at one another "Wek!  Wek!  wekwek!  WEK!"  Peregrines are really fast, and no, I couldn't get a photo.  There was a youngish couple at the point, taking photos and looking at the ducks, who turned to me and said, "What on earth was THAT!!"  I was quite sure they were peregrines--the "Wek!" is peregrine for something incivil--I looked it up in my online bird guide.  It was, in any case, an unusual performance.

The river was actually down from a couple of days back, and to my delight, the dipper was back, busily diving and gathering goodies from the riverbed.    Despite being a chubby, nondescript little grey bird, it's really one of my favourites--it has so many interesting behaviours--diving, swimming underwater, and year round they're lovely little singers.




I watched for some time, as it moved out of film range and my feet became increasingly cold.  Home for hot soup...

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