Frosty

The past few days have felt bitter cold in the morning. It has been beautifully clear on the island with temperatures getting in the upper 40s but also means that when the sun sets, the temperature goes right with it. It has been just over 32 degrees when I get up and head to work, but still there is a layer of frost and ice on everything. I have had to scrape my windows and even be cautions as I drive to work and feel my truck get a little squirrelly on me.

This also requires me to do a little ice breaking when it comes to the animals, just to make sure they can get to their water bowl, or can take a dip if the mood suits them. I also love the fact the ground gets "crunchy" we have so much muddy puddles right now that is nice to have some crust to walk on. It doesn't take too much time for the sun to start thawing everything, which is nice.


The frozen wet pen pre-ice break.


The swan decided that a float in the water would be nice, which is great for her bum leg!


Frost encompasses the "Hollow"


A close up of the frost crystals.

I also was able to get another one of our many patients released today. We have so many that are ready to go, but we need to get them back to mainland and we have recently encountered a problem of lack of flights to when our volunteers are available for pick up. Grr.. thank goodness this was just an island release. It was a funny one. I have stated before and I still believe that pigeons are one of the most uninteresting, lest successful releases. Generally instead of flying away (like you see them do in those corny wedding releases) they just do their head bobbing walk away. I try to encourage them to fly to make sure I know I am doing the right thing with the release that day, but as much as I had to chase this pigeon around the cage this morning; I didn't bother and let him saunter off into the bushes.


Bye-bye Birdie!