Life on the Outer Coast

Woke up to more snow, both on the ground and coming down. Based on the amount I had to shovel to the bird feeder, it snowed about 5 inches over night. The snow seems wetter than what we had Thursday night. It is sliding off the roof in huge slumps with 1.5ft long icicles curving toward the house. Swept the snow off the rhododendrons and other shrubs so that the snow won't break branches. It doesn't have much in the way of protective qualities for tall shrubs. I left it on the shorter plants, not sure if the juniper really likes the moisture though. The New Dawn Viburnum was still blooming under the snow. No sign of witch hazel flowers.
Spent most of the day indoors watching the feeder, writing descriptions and doing chores. The feeder had steady activity today, mostly the usual visitors with the additon of a Varied thrush.

I did leave the house to snowshoe around the lake in the early afternoon. Managed to put my shoes on the right feet today. The snowshoes seemed incredibly loud today. Didn't think that I'd see a single bird on my walk. I was wrong, but it took awhile after I left the house to find much. There were Winter wrens and Song sparrows along the trail, I was surprised not to find any siskins in the alders around the lake. There was a bit more variety down by the dock and in the commons. Buffleheads, Barrow's Goldeneyes, Pelagic cormorants, Harlequins, Common Mergansers and Glaucous winged gulls by the dock. Not a terribly impressive list, but better than along the lake. I did find 2 Bohemian waxwings in the commons. Their distinctive call was what alerted me to them. I got a brief look before they flitted off again. Decided to look at the Mountain ash trees by the A-frame to see if there was a bigger flock, no luck, but I was lucky enough to be looking in the right direction when a Northern Goshawk flew by. It flew from Galankin over to the forest on Gilmore Island. I didn't get a long look at it, but by the size, flight pattern and color it seems right for a dark juvenile.
Wandered back to the commons to do a bit more searching. Found a couple more song sparrows over by the house at the south end. Was turning to head back to the trail and saw another hawk. The most distinctive thing about it other than its size was the very red tail. It wasn't sunny, so I believe that the color was truely red. The bird was too large for a kestrel, so I'm not sure what else it would have been other than a Red-tailed hawk. This bird was also flying toward the Gilmore islands, but I lost sight of it, so I don't know if it landed or continued on.
The rest of the walk was rather quiet except for the noise from my snow shoes.