Look who showed up at the little heated birdbath outside the sliding door. It's been out there for a little less than two weeks and it seems Mr. Blue is the only one who is brave enough to come for a drink.
It has to be this close to the house to be used without an extension cord. And it's only in the "on" or "heating" state when the temperature is at or below freezing (or so the manual says). But we've had some pretty low temperatures the last two weeks and it hasn't frozen up. The rock is in it for two reasons. One - to give the birds somewhere to land if they don't want to sit on the edge. And two - to keep it from being blown over as it is very lightweight.
Saturday afternoon our phones blew up with not one but two emergency alerts for an approaching snow squall. We've never had such and "emergency" before to my recollection. It was bewildering at best because the sky was clear and blue at the time. I could see on the radar on the weather app that it was approaching though.
The wind was pretty intense, but we never got to "white out" conditions, at least not here on Bluebird Hill. You can see the windsock was completely sideways and the moving trees were a little scary, but none of them gave it and broke. Thank goodness.
I mentioned Bluebird Hill - that is the name that we have given to our weather station that HWNSNBP recently installed up on the pool deck. We have a screen in the house with the weather info and we have it hooked up so that we also have it posted on the internet on the Weather Underground (click here). I had been keeping track of the daily high and low temps all of last year and posted about it earlier in January. I wanted to do it again but with data that was more accurate for our actual location so I looked into this weather station on Amazon and we got it. There is no charge for the website which is nice, and it gives me the info historically also in case I miss a day or we're away. I do have a definite project in mind for this data and I'm collecting my supplies for it before I can begin. I'll share when it gets up and running.
oooooh - a bluebird! I have never seen one despite the fact that they are supposed to be around this area.
ReplyDeleteKeeping track of the temperatures - hmmm....I wonder if there's some sort of temperature blanket in the offing.....
A heated bird bath no kidding!
ReplyDeleteWe have had two pairs of bluebirds at our suet feeders as well as our birdbath (which had a heater, then it shorted out, now DH thinks he has it repaired), and they have been a joy to watch. I did see one going in our bluebird house yesterday so they are getting ready to build a nest, I hope! TFS!
ReplyDeleteWe have blue birds around here but not as cute as those. I have a flower pot sitting in a tray that collects water that has become a favorite watering hole because it somewhat provides a wall of protection behind the pot. When it freezes over, I guess they go down to the creek. Looks like we shared that horrible windy ice weather. I kept the radar running on the tv almost 24 hours to see if we would escape the ice storm that could steal our electricity....my worst fear.
ReplyDeleteLove, love the bluebird photos. I've never have much luck when I try setting a birdbath out.
ReplyDeleteEnvious of your almost no wind right now... we've had three named storms blow through in a week and it's been very windy here.