Community Chat

[Trailrun23]

 The weatherman said this cold will be lethal to any animals or people who stay outside. They found a man outside behind a restaurant in Ft Worth this morning who had died from the cold overnight; probably homeless, but there are warming centers and shelters almost everywhere here now; churches, libraries, malls, rec centers; almost all are open with cots and plenty of food and blankets. It is wonderful to see people caring for the truly needy right not. This is life-threatening cold.We pass several pastures of cattle when we drive up to my son's home. I don't know if the ranchers have a barn or other place for their cattle, but I hope they have a spot for them; the wind is brutal with no protection from it. The weatherman also said to check behind bushes etc. after it finally warms up to see if any strays or other animals had frozen to death as they tried to hide from the wind. What a terrible thought. In Feb '21, we found a little mourning dove in a flower bed, frozen stiff. Made me so sad. If you have any way to bring your porch kitty inside, it will be safer for kitty. Doubtful she can make it if it's single digits. Hope everyone is fine!

[MakeUpMaidn]

It's 18F now!  Real Feel, 5F

My sister, up North, is 17F, Real Feel 2F

What  the Heck??

Thank goodness I indulged in a wonderful "Christmas Eve, Eve" nap today.  I'm assuming I'm supposed to be dripping a Cold water faucet too, & I'm not comfortable sleeping with a dripping faucet!  but brrrrr

I awakened to multiple neighborhood texts, where neighbors are trying to ID & return blown away items to their proper owners, even tho we all thought we'd harnessed down our items.  When we all connect tomorrow, I hope there was no damage to neighbor's belongings.

The wind blew my mailbox open, and I had to chase down some of my blown-away mail. Fortunately, my newly, mailed Credit Card wasnt one of the "blown away" mail pieces.

This Wind, (& now beyond even cold), has been something like out of the "Twilight Zone," esp for this area.

I hope all this results in some wonderful geo terrific help, in the end.  Like replenish scarce water sources.  Or kill most/all of the internal beetles that are destroying the Calif trees, drying the trees out, making for fire kindling.

[LizzieInSRQ]

@Trailrun23 thank you for taking time to answer. We Florida natives ( at least this one) truly have no reference to know of this.

Thinking of you all and hoping for the best.

[songbird]

I just woke up now.  I looked at the thermostat.  Stared and could not read the temperature.  It looked squished to one side.  I finally saw 4.5F  I'm not sure it has a minus sign to it. I always keep a bottle of water by my bed, as in winter time I get very thirsty  It felt like I just took it out of fridge instead being in room temperature.  High today in the teens.  Defantely I'm not going out.  Today is our week off (Christmas to New Year) from school.  I won't be back till the next Tuesday after New Years.But I'm staying inside as long as I can.  Imagine trying to deliver mail in this weather! I just read in the news that postal service office will be closed.  Amazon too.  I doubt I will get any packages today.  Although my snake bracelet from QVC finally came last night.  It was lost in action without a tracking number!  But it found it's way home.

[SouthernBee]

Good Morning Y'all. It is 14 and need to get up and get busy. I am probably sweating compared to everyone else weather conditions but this extremely cold for my area near Ft. Benning, Ga. Everyone stay safe and warm.

[cowboy sam]

Wind was strong yesterday with blowing snow  and tem. was -7!

Don't know what wind temp was?

I have snow on sidewalk and driveway...and its to heavy for me to shovel!I'm 82 years old and have high blood pressure so i'm not even going to try!

Hope neighbor across the street will shovel it out later today when wind stops  and it warms up...it is now 1degree out so its warming up slowly!

[CalminHeart]

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@CalminHeart wrote:

Our high temp today is -8 and wind chills of -40 to -50. It's currently -9 with wind chill of -42.

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I chuckled when I watched the news last night. It's supposed to be +45 degrees by Dec 29. I can hardly wait.

[drizzellla]

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@PJinIA wrote:

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@drizzellla wrote:

We have 3 bird feeders and 1 suet holder.

This morning I was watching the poor birds trying to hang onto the feeders as the wind was blowing the feeders around.

Later in the day one of the feeders had fallen onto the ground. So most of the birds were standing on the ground eating the food that had fallen. I guess they were tired of trying to hang onto the feeder as it moved around, and eat the bird food. They preferred to stand on the ground.

It has beconne a popular spot. Yesterday we even had a hawk. He wasn't able the get any of the bird food. The holders weren't designed for that big of a bird.

We got tired of watching the finches and little birds miss out on the birdfood. The starlings seemed to take over. So we bought 2 finch feeders and one feeder for the larger birds.

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The Hawks don't come to the bird feeders for the food, they come for the birds.   At least that's been my experience.  I've never seen them eat bird food but I've seen them snatch a bird and eat it.

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Yes, all the birds had taken off when the hawk appeared. But it was interesting watching the hawk try and sit on the ledge of the bird feeder. It finally gave up trying to sit on the bird feeder and flew to the ground to hang out.

[PJinIA]

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@drizzellla wrote:

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@PJinIA wrote:

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@drizzellla wrote:

We have 3 bird feeders and 1 suet holder.

This morning I was watching the poor birds trying to hang onto the feeders as the wind was blowing the feeders around.

Later in the day one of the feeders had fallen onto the ground. So most of the birds were standing on the ground eating the food that had fallen. I guess they were tired of trying to hang onto the feeder as it moved around, and eat the bird food. They preferred to stand on the ground.

It has beconne a popular spot. Yesterday we even had a hawk. He wasn't able the get any of the bird food. The holders weren't designed for that big of a bird.

We got tired of watching the finches and little birds miss out on the birdfood. The starlings seemed to take over. So we bought 2 finch feeders and one feeder for the larger birds.

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The Hawks don't come to the bird feeders for the food, they come for the birds.   At least that's been my experience.  I've never seen them eat bird food but I've seen them snatch a bird and eat it.

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Yes, all the birds had taken off when the hawk appeared. But it was interesting watching the hawk try and sit on the ledge of the bird feeder. It finally gave up trying to sit on the bird feeder and flew to the ground to hang out.

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They are definitely party crashers when they show up!!   

A few years ago I had a bald eagle sit in my tree near the feeders.  It was during a polar vortex event and he would show up every day and wait.  All the water was still frozen so he couldn't fish and it may have been his last hope for a meal.  The other birds were immediately aware of his presence and they took off.  Spectacular sight but I have a tiny dog so I couldn't let her out alone!

I can barely keep the feeders full during this cold snap.   Record number of birds have showed up and they are devouring the food as fast as I put it out.

[drizzellla]

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@PJinIA wrote:

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They are definitely party crashers when they show up!!   

A few years ago I had a bald eagle sit in my tree near the feeders.  It was during a polar vortex event and he would show up every day and wait.  All the water was still frozen so he couldn't fish and it may have been his last hope for a meal.  The other birds were immediately aware of his presence and they took off.  Spectacular sight but I have a tiny dog so I couldn't let her out alone!

I can barely keep the feeders full during this cold snap.   Record number of birds have showed up and they are devouring the food as fast as I put it out.

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We live outside Philadelphia, PA in a tiny Township and we have a few bald eagles mostly in the parks. But one day a bald eagle decided to pay a visit and landed on our Township Building.



I know what you mean about the bird feeders being popular. My husband had to run out on Thursday for more birdseed and suet.