A Walk in the Park

Not much hiking and photography for me this week. The weather has been unusually harsh here, in fact in the 20 winters I have spent in the Austin area I have not seen weather like this here before. But, I still like to go for walks so I bundled up and went for a walk with my camera.

All I have are a couple of photos of birds tolerating the weather. Below is a robin that comes to Texas in the winter to avoid the cold weather. I see the robins hanging around these trees every time I walk the park lately and they aren’t too shy around people.

The next is a cardinal, which I love to see in the winter as they really stand out against the gray landscape. The cardinals usually hide up in the thick branches but this guy was out on a limb for me.

A lot of the trees around here can’t take the ice and are falling down all around town, but thankfully not in my yard.

Hopefully the weather will get better later next week and I can get back to hiking.

33 thoughts on “A Walk in the Park”

  3. I am ready for our robins to come back!
    How nice of the pretty cardinal to go out on a limb for you.
    Sad that some trees are breaking, but the pictures of the ice on the trees gives a magical look.

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            1. Nobody is used to it here. The city doesn’t have plows or salt trucks or anything like that. This is just a very unusual winter. I told her to turn around and go back home. The grocery store (where she works) is not likely to get much business today anyway.

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  6. Wow! After yesterday’s wet snow here, I was listening to the continuous avalanche-control this morning thinking of the mess on the roads and figuring it was probably suicidal to ski in the back-country today. But we don’t get ice like that! That’s just nasty. Hopefully, the birds’ feet don’t stick.

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  7. Hope you didn’t hurt yourself. Common way to have a nasty injury around here… especially on stairs. I always wear boot chains when I’m out shoveling. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to last very long on my running shoes. There’s a local kid who will install tire studs in your trail-running shoes. I’ve actually considered trying it.

    Local Steller’s jays will pick through the kitchen scrap pile thrown onto my snowed-over garden planter. But I get the sense they’re not impressed with onion skins, avocado rinds and coffee grounds. There must be something tastier around here.

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        1. We had an ice storm the weekend, then a bunch of snow Sunday night. Then it got really cold for here, down close to 0F and it hasn’t been much above the low twenties since.
          The power has been on and off several times a day. Supposed to be more cold and sleet tomorrow.
          I just got back from a walk in the snowy park.
          So, been inconvenienced and generally fine.

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          1. Wow! You guys are having it colder than us! BRR! And you went for a walk, I am impressed! I have a treadmill for the winter time. LOL!
            More pictures from your walk?
            Hope your power doesn’t go out too long at a time. You need a fireplace now. 😉

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        2. Texas uses a lot of natural gas for power generation as well as heating in homes. I think this just kind of overloaded the capacity. Also, Texas doesn’t expect as much electricity usage in the winter so I think some plants shut down for maintenance, so it caught the power producers off guard.

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