Clash of the seasons

Our first snowstorm of the year yesterday brought two inches of wet stuff. That in itself might not be cause for comment, except for the fact that our oaks only reached their peak of color a few days ago, and many of the maples still hold their leaves, too. The preponderance of oaks among the canopy-height trees here is a bit of an anomaly; elsewhere in the area, the colors have mostly faded. So our autumn is a little later than the norm, perhaps.

Two inches is just enough to make everything pretty, but not enough to start breaking limbs — a real concern this time of year. Only three years ago, a mid-November ice-storm did a heavy pruning on many of the oaks. And too much wet snow when the ground is still unfrozen can fell trees, as happened here back in December 1992.

This morning, we had four finch species at the feeders: house finch, purple finch, goldfinch and pine siskin — good-sized flocks of the latter two. Mom has high hopes for a winter-finch irruption year. It would be our first in over a decade, if it happens.

To see all of yesterday’s photos, visit the date archive at my Flickr site.