Alison and I had a wonderful visit to British Columbia over New Year’s. It was a short one, unfortunately, and snowy beyond belief.

But we were kept warm and well fed (very, very well fed!) with Alison’s parents and her brother. We even sneaked in a few short walks through the cold and snow; it was for the most part remarkably unbirdy, in spite of the excellent crop of mountain ash berries this year.

No grosbeaks, no waxwings, but a few ducks on Kootenay Lake, among them Buffleheads, the cutest of the cute.

Unlike in winters past, we found no gulls at all on the lake, but a fine American Dipper was hunting Cottonwood Creek just where we’d left it on our last cold-season visit.

New Year’s Day itself was cold and dark, with snow piling up again; the perfect day to spend inside, which is what we did with most of it. I’d actually forgot that we’d turned the calendar page, and happily enough at breakfast managed to look out the window at Alison’s parents just in time to see the day’s, and the year’s, first American Crows.

A moment later and I’d have begun the year with a Rock Pigeon, surely not the way to start!