A Winter Mix

Well, winter is upon us in all it's snowy glory this week. For the last seven days we've had snow on and off every day. Right now we must have 10-12 inches on the ground and some of the region's schools have had their first snow day of the season.

Over the years this old shed has been used as a chicken coop, a place to store my motorcycle and now as a garden shed. But no matter what we use it for it always looks pretty sitting out in the snow.

The next photographs were shot on Friday at the Cambria County Courthouse in Ebensburg, PA.

Recorder of Deeds Office decked for the holidays.

The county Christmas tree sitting in the rotunda of the courthouse.

Some of the award winning decorations done by the Clerk of Courts staff outside one of the Courtrooms.

The winner of this year's 5th Annual Dickens of a Christmas Courthouse door decorating contest was the Clerk of Courts.

Carolers who added some musical entertainment to the day's festivities.

Caroler.

Dark-eyed Junco on a sasafras branch that has the last leaf of summer still hanging on in the snow.

The cardinals are usually the first birds to visit the feeders in the morning, and are generally the last birds to visit as darkness falls.

A female Red-bellied woodpecker and a female Hairy woodpecker maneuver for position at the suet feeder hanging on a tree.

White-breasted Nuthatch and a male Downy woodpecker share space at the feeder.

A Tufted Titmouse enjoys our Christmas wreath wrapped suet feeder.

A Mourning Dove puffs itself up to about twice it's normal size to maintain its body heat while facing into the wind bearing our lake effect snow.

We purchased this folkart wooden flower during the New Germany Arts and Crafts show in October and we've now turned it into an outdoor Christmas decoration.

Nothing but Wildlife

With the Thanksgiving holiday and everything else taken into consideration I decided to take the week off myself and spend time wandering around the woods for a few days.

Pilieated Woodpecker looking for bugs in an old dead tree.

Red-bellied Woodpecker trying to hide out of the way of the wind.

The littlest of our woodpeckers here in Pennsylvania are the Downeys.

One of two pictures of an 8 point buck shot while out stalking prior to the state's deer season.

If I was still a hunter this would have been considered a perfect shot, one sure to put meat on the table.

I caught these four doe passing by as I sat taking a break on a tree stump.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk seems to have taken up permanent residence on the edge of the tree line where it can watch the bird feeders that we have set out.

Purple finches on the bird feeder during our first real snow of the season.

After watching this dove for about ten minutes it finally decided to take off from the branch that it had been sitting on much to the relief of my trigger finger.