Here's an update on Clem--he's back and ok! Mary sent a message this morning and this photo around 10 o'clock saying Clem was back, eating grape jelly at her feeder.  She sent more photos this afternoon and this message:

Jane, this is the first time I’ve seen another bird sharing the feeder with him.  Clem was eating his grape jelly and this cute chickadee joined him to eat the sunflower seeds.   Mary

 

 I am so pleased Clem is ok. I would hate to think a hawk got him after all he's been through in order to survive this long in the cold weather. Seems as if he deserves to be around to welcome his fellow orioles when they return from the south this spring!
     Middle son, Jamie, told me today he saw a bobcat sitting in the road as he was coming home from Brickett's Crossing way. The bobcat was just past our mailbox on the flat. Jamie said the cat didn't move until Jamie was almost to him, and even then it went down over the bank towards the pond and stood watching him. Jamie stopped and rolled down the window to get a good look, and the bobcat then went into the woods. We know there have been some around in our woods before, and I believe Ray and Evelyn Richer used to see at least one regularly down at their place, now Scott and Gerry Pelock's. I'm glad our cat, Woody, is no longer going out at night. I expect bobcats are pretty hungry this time of year. I looked them up on the internet and this is what I found:

Bobcats eat a variety of animal species, including mice, rats, squirrels, chickens, small fawns, wild birds, feral cats, cottontail and rabbits. It's very unlikely, but possible, that free-roaming cats or small dogs left outside unattended might be taken as well.

We saw two cars off the road today. One was in that very deep ditch opposite Morgan's cottage on West Shore Road, just below our house. It had been there for a couple of days, at least, according to Jamie. We only saw it this morning, but Jamie said when he came home around 3 p.m. it was gone. We have no idea what happened - it was off on the left side, heading up the hill, so a skid is unlikely--and there seemed to be tire marks as if the driver either fell asleep or otherwise lost visibility and got too far to the left. That ditch is big and the car was all the way in, on its side.

The second one was off on the south side of Route 2, just past Woodward Drive, by what used to be Injun Joe's Cottages, now Thomas and Karen Lauzon's, now called Pond View Development. The roads seemed good to us, but there may have been black ice, at least on Route 2, that caused the car to go off. The wind was blowing a gale, so it may have been blowing snow across the road and the driver lost visibility. That's a notoriously bad spot. Used to be water would often flow over the road from the upper side towards the pond, but a few years ago I believe a new culvert was put in there to correct that.  

The weather is quiet right now, and the temperature that has remained well below zero all day, is still at minus four degrees. It will be another cold night. Keep the animals inside, and don't go outside if you don't have to.