Jan. 1, 2023 - Winter Wonderland

Happy New Year!! It’s winter in Minnesota and we’ve had our first big snowstorms of the season. This is the scene that greeted us about two weeks ago out the window at our apartment in the St. Paul suburbs.

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The crab apple trees still have fruit on them, and they were covered with heavy, sticky snow.

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I’m not sure what these are but looking up at them gives a good idea of how the snow just piled up on everything.

UPDATE: My friend Shawn Conrad tells me these are Ash flower galls. Thanks, Shawn.

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A couple days later, I drove up to our lake home so I could participate in the Grand Rapids Christmas Bird Count (CBC). There was even more snow up there. This is how the road that leads to our house looked when I arrived. Thank goodness it had been plowed!

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The wet snow stuck to everything and really weighed down the smaller bushes.

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Some trees had so much snow stuck to them that they bent completely over to form an arch.

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When I was driving around my Christmas Bird Count route, I saw many trees heavily laden with snow like these two. The branches must be very flexible so they can bend without breaking.

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Oak leaves tend to stay attached to the trees until spring, so they provided another surface for the snow to pile up on.

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I saw some Pine Grosbeaks on my CBC route.

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This panoramic shot gives a good feel for how extensively the snow covered the landscape.

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