tiggymalvern (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tiggymalvern) wrote2007-12-03 11:09 pm
tiggymalvern) wrote2007-12-03 11:09 pm
Entry tags:
Safe return!
I'm back this evening from the long weekend in the boonies Omak. There can't be too many mornings when you wake up and say, 'Yay! Today I get to drive 300 miles home in the rain and mist!' But when the alternative is driving that 300 miles over snow, I'll take the rain XD
From the POV of travelling weather, the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I drove up on Friday with snow on all the fields but the roads squished clear, car-shared Saturday and Sunday with other drivers in the compacted snow, then drove home today with the roads largely melted. (Still had to exhume the poor Scooby from a foot of snow this morning!) Although melting snow on the roads means melting snow everywhere, and Steven's Pass was closed for the better part of 24 hours because of snow slides, then the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass was closed for the same reason, so that for several hours today there was no way between eastern and western Washington in the entire northern two thirds of the state! Fortunately, my leisurely wanderings timed it so that I arrived in Cle Elum just as the queue through the entire town to get onto I-90 started to shorten.
Of course, it would have been nice if there'd been power when I got home at 5.30pm, but I should have known better than to expect it since it had been windy on the west side while I was gone ::sigh::
From the point of view of the birds, we mistimed the weather. Since the main reason for the trip was to go and see Arctic and mountain birds that get pushed down by the cold, it needed to be cold for several days before we got there, instead of the cold starting on Saturday (and damn, did it get cold! At one point in the afternoon, it was 18 F (where freezing is 32 for those who speak metric. Luckily my layers of clothing did their advertised job.) But Saturday evening was just too perfect - absolutely still, with huge, slowly-drifting flakes, and all the settled snow reflecting the light so it didn't feel dark at 9pm, just atmospheric. Gorgeous. I'm still glad I don't live somewhere where it snows four months a year though!
I went on this weekend trip with 13 hoped-for birds, and came back with 6 of them (though 3 were birds I found for myself, stopping off at likely sites on the trip there and back). We had a flock of 250 snow buntings on the Waterville plateau, which is pretty exceptional numbers, and a fabulous juvenile golden eagle that drifted alongside the road then perched on the hillside for us while we looked for non-existent sharp-tailed grouse, before moving off with us again when we left.
I had a great weekend with good food (and good wine, never forget that!) and a really good bunch of smart, discerning people. Sometimes the birds are secondary to the company.
Music because there truly are a select few albums to drive 300 miles with :-)
From the POV of travelling weather, the timing couldn't have been more perfect. I drove up on Friday with snow on all the fields but the roads squished clear, car-shared Saturday and Sunday with other drivers in the compacted snow, then drove home today with the roads largely melted. (Still had to exhume the poor Scooby from a foot of snow this morning!) Although melting snow on the roads means melting snow everywhere, and Steven's Pass was closed for the better part of 24 hours because of snow slides, then the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass was closed for the same reason, so that for several hours today there was no way between eastern and western Washington in the entire northern two thirds of the state! Fortunately, my leisurely wanderings timed it so that I arrived in Cle Elum just as the queue through the entire town to get onto I-90 started to shorten.
Of course, it would have been nice if there'd been power when I got home at 5.30pm, but I should have known better than to expect it since it had been windy on the west side while I was gone ::sigh::
From the point of view of the birds, we mistimed the weather. Since the main reason for the trip was to go and see Arctic and mountain birds that get pushed down by the cold, it needed to be cold for several days before we got there, instead of the cold starting on Saturday (and damn, did it get cold! At one point in the afternoon, it was 18 F (where freezing is 32 for those who speak metric. Luckily my layers of clothing did their advertised job.) But Saturday evening was just too perfect - absolutely still, with huge, slowly-drifting flakes, and all the settled snow reflecting the light so it didn't feel dark at 9pm, just atmospheric. Gorgeous. I'm still glad I don't live somewhere where it snows four months a year though!
I went on this weekend trip with 13 hoped-for birds, and came back with 6 of them (though 3 were birds I found for myself, stopping off at likely sites on the trip there and back). We had a flock of 250 snow buntings on the Waterville plateau, which is pretty exceptional numbers, and a fabulous juvenile golden eagle that drifted alongside the road then perched on the hillside for us while we looked for non-existent sharp-tailed grouse, before moving off with us again when we left.
I had a great weekend with good food (and good wine, never forget that!) and a really good bunch of smart, discerning people. Sometimes the birds are secondary to the company.
Music because there truly are a select few albums to drive 300 miles with :-)
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Were you able to get pictures of the ones you spotted? :)
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