It has been raining on and off all week. In the Wichita Falls area, it hasn't been too bad, although tornadoes and strong storms have been pounding our neighbors to the north in OK. In fact, a tornado destroyed the home of Debby Kaspari, one of the regular contributors to the OKBIRDS listserv. Listserv members are collecting money to help her out.
However, we in the Wichita Falls area have been catching more severe weather since yesterday. Consequently, there is a lot of standing water and the authorities are beginning to close the roads in some low lying areas. The watch is on the Wichita River--it is rising rapidly. This is the river that caused flooding and evacuation of much of our neighborhood in 2007 (we were one of the lucky ones that didn't have to leave.) At present, the water is not nearly that high. Weather forecasts are for storms all weekend, into next week.
I am glad we are having cool weather and rain, but it would be nice to spread it out throughout the summer.
The birds are laying low. Although there are some branches down around town, it didn't look to bad when I was out earlier today. Storms are often followed by a huge influx of birds at Wild Bird Rescue, but so far, that hasn't been the case. We are getting the normal run of babies (right now, running heavily to blue jays) but not yet any large numbers of additional birds from the storms. We have had over 100 birds come in after major storms in the past; we'll continue to hope for continued good fortune in that respect.
Cedar waxwings are still in the area--I heard them in the front yard at lunch today. I guess they aren't convinced there will be fruit up north yet.
Good birding!
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