White Christmases

I woke up this morning and there was snow. I surely was surprised. This photo is one I snagged from Flickr Creative Commons. I'm not sure where it was taken, but I thought it beautiful. When we were children we always wished for white Chrismases, but rarely saw them. I can remember times when it would be in the 70's or warmer on Christmas Day. Of course growing up in Oklahoma you just never knew what the weather would bring. We used to say if you didn't like the weather, just walk across the street and you could get something different. LOL In Oklahoma you can get the most beautiful sunny days, the hottest muggiest days, the icy coldest, the snowiest days, and then throw in an occasional tornado that levels neighborhoods and you get an idea of Oklahoma weather. Of course that could all happen within 24 hours. Sort of kidding. Yesterday we had rains that melted alot of the previous snow, so yes I surely was surprised this morning when everything was covered with a light dusting of snow. I took peanuts out to my local Bluejays and there was the most beautiful seagull on the roof of the garage. It looked like it might have been a 2nd or 3rd year gull. They have some interesting changes in plummage as they get older. This one had just the slightest of brown that gulls usually carry during the first year and a little bit in to the 2nd year. We also had some loud crows show up with the jays and the gull. I just love watching the winter birds. We were supposed to have the big Christmas Bird Count here on the peninsula, but the weather has been snowy, icy, rainy, so our local groups did not participate this year. The data collected goes in to a database at Cornell University, school of orinthology. There are so many things to participate in that are of nature. There is a group that is going to start to track the migrating gray whale population pretty soon. I believe they start to do that on Dec. 28th. I've never looked for the gray whale migration for the count. I don't do that, because I think even with binoculars my eyes aren't good enough to spot things way off in the distance. I sometimes have seen the gray whales off in the distance when I was out on the beach, but you have to look really hard to spot them. I hope everyone is having an excellant day. Happy Holiday to All!