Snow

We just had a blizzard on Long Island (NY, USA). I don't know if we broke a record for snowfall in my small neighborhood, but in a nearby community, East Islip they did: 31 inches. We had a lot of snow. My son took a picture of my car in the driveway.

You can see in that picture, next to the car, the path he cut with the snowblower. Look at the height of that snowbank! This may not impress my Canadian friends, but I'm impressed.

It seems to me that we have been buried in snow this winter. Last month we had another storm that left about a foot and half of snow in the area. After that snowfall, an Arctic blast hit us and stayed for weeks. The snow it seemed would never melt. We have had snow on the ground for all of 2026, I think.

It snowed again last night, just a small bit, but discouraging after the blizzard. More snow is predicted in the next few days.

With the snow, comes the cold, but what beautiful scenes we have. Great opportunities for amazing pictures. My daughter went down to the shore (very near our house) with the dog a couple of weeks ago and snapped some photos. She sent them to me on Feb 15, when it was a toasty 37 degrees, F. Snow was forecast again that night (I just checked the calendar).

I declined my daughter's invitation to go to the beach. If it's 37 degrees inland, it's at least five degrees colder on the shore.

Here is a picture of gulls looking for food in the icy bay.

Here is another view of the icy bay. You can see a visitor standing in a viewing area that would be packed in summertime. This is a park that is well visited. It's a popular boat harbor and beach.

My daughter's dog loves the beach, but there is no going in the water when it's this cold. Here is a picture of his head, with the icy bay in the background. He likes to watch the birds.

This is a mixed breed dog. In that mix there is a little bit of husky, so he takes to the cold very well. He absolutely loves snow, but he doesn't like it when the snow is actually falling on him.

Here he is looking out across the bay. You can see a distant shore in the picture. I think that might be Centre Island, or Cold Spring Harbor.

When my daughter is at work, I have to walk the dog. If the ground is covered with snow and ice, I let him out in the backyard. He loves it. Here's a picture of him. I took this shot through the window screen. The dog is sitting in the snow!! He refuses to come in. I shot this picture before the blizzard.

Here's a shot my daughter caught of a magnificent gull coming in for a landing on the icy shore.

Apparently there are fish to be found in winter months along Long Island's coast. Winter fishing, for humans and gulls is apparently a thing. In addition to fishing, gulls may hang around the coast because of the debris humans leave behind. Gulls are scavengers. They will eat fish, insects, garbage and even dead animals.

Judging from the numerous gulls in evidence during my daughter's visit to the shore, there must be an abundant supply of these food sources.

Here is a shot that seems to prove the theory that gulls hang around for garbage. The town plowers had piled snow and ice into a frozen mountain. I can imagine the garbage that was collected in the mound. Note the number of gulls competing for whatever is on that ice mountain.

Here is a boat slip. In summer boats fill the bay and each piling pole will have a bird perched on top. The birds hang out in large groups on the shore and swarm when food is in the offing--ex: someone throws leftover lunch in the trash. Apparently the cold is not enough to dissuade two human visitors.

My daughter swung her phone camera over to the left and got a shot of this boat tied up at the pier. If you look out beyond the boat you can what appears to be ice. Surely this is a working boat, maybe a town boat, because I can't imagine a leisure boat venturing out into that ice.

Gulls are not the only birds near me that survive in winter. As my daughter was walking the dog around the neighborhood, she caught sight of large, black birds together in a tree. They look like ravens, which I know have been sighted in the area. These could have been very large crows, but they were really, really large.

While crows travel in flocks, ravens travel alone or in pairs, ordinarily. When hunting, especially in winter, they may travel in groups as large as five. The birds in the picture below do not look like crows to me.

Here is a picture from Wikimedia Commons of five common ravens (Corvus corax). This was taken at Bonny Doon Beach, CA, USA by Grendelkhan (CC license Attribution share alike international).

What do you think? Were there ravens in my neighborhood tree?

I know the snow is not done with us yet. It's the end of February (not quite). March is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. But then, we did have a blizzard in April one year. I take consolation in the fact that I will never shovel again. I have people to do that for me (my children). Both of them are complaining today about sore muscles :))

I leave off with a parting shot of the icy bay.

Thank you for reading my blog. Hive on!

May peace and compassion prevail in my country.