Flash Freeze

We had a wild 24 hours of weather here. Snow Thursday (about 5 cm), then the temperature started to rise--pausing for a bout of freezing rain, then continuing to a rainy high of +5C Friday morning. Then the winds came up--a little snow, and plunging temperatures. Once again, we're surrounded by ice.

A flock of goldfinches (about 50), some of which are seen here, turn up whenever the temperature drops, or snow is in the air. I never see them anywhere else(except at the nieghbour's feeder). I wonder if the flock breaks up when the weather is good, or if they just go so far afield I don't run into them.
But the high pressure has brought fantastic late February sunshine. And yesterday I heard 2 mystery birds singing, and the white-breasted nuthatch singing as well (if you can call it that). I noticed this for the first time last year--the nuthatch sings very early in the season (pre-season you might say). I believe that the pair that visit the feeder regularly are on this territory year round, and so perhaps the early singing is to make sure that they keep it, perhaps because young nuthatches are on the move right now. Whatever the reason though, it's good to hear this portent of spring.