First Snowy 11/10/2017

   The change of seasons from fall to winter occurred yesterday afternoon, when the south wind which pushed morning temperatures to the mid-40's,  shifted to the northwest and dropped the late afternoon temps into the upper 20's.  In the evening, lake-effect snow showers dropped about an inch of snow on the area while the trees were still deciding if they should drop their leaves even though the complete color change has yet to occur.

My yard

   The clash of seasons gave me the opportunity to  photograph two of my favorite subjects (snow and fall colors) simultaneously.

Leaves at Ludington State Park

Buttersville Park

  At Buttersville Park, which is on the grounds of my employer, I ran into my coworker Brad who told me that the Snowy Owl that he found yesterday was still up on the reservoir road.

  About an hour later I drove the upper reservoir road and found the Snowy and a Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk at eye level. 

Ludington Oriole

  As I was taking test shots to ensure a properly exposed photo of a Baltimore Oriole, an Oriole dropped down from the Beech tree and flew past the orange that I put out for it. 

White-crowned Sparrow

  The day didn't start out all sunshine and oranges. The cool gusts off of the lake brought a squall of snow pellets that coated the car....

.....the deck.....

...and the dog.

Sparrows in the Snow

   An early spring snowstorm had the lingering winter sparrows sharing scraps under the feeding stations with arriving spring migrants.

American Tree Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Song Sparrow

 

Chipping Sparrow

   The snowstorm had been in the forecast since last weekend but as is often the case with spring storms, the uncertainty of temperatures hovering in the low 30's had the snowfall predictions swinging from 1-3 inches all the way to 12" plus.  We could have hit that one foot level had we not had an influx of warm air in the mid levels of the atmosphere for several hours that melted the precip on the way down only to refreeze on the 31 F ground,  We ended up with 7 or 8 " and maybe 1/4" of ice that took out the power in my neighborhood and beyond.

    The quick walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail left the dog almost covered by the nearly 2" diameter flakes.