Frigid

No surprises, the snow that was forecast only a few days ago never materialized.  Instead Portland is bearing the brunt of the worst weather.  But we still have sub-freezing temperatures here.  We are currently in an approximately 72 hour stretch where the temperature will not get above freezing.  It started yesterday afternoon when an Arctic front came in.  I was out for a walk and encountered ice pellets and an extreme drop in temperature as the front pushed in.  And that frigid temperature has stuck around today, and will continue into tomorrow.  But at least no snow.  It is forecast to get down to about -11 C overnight.  It was barely warmer than that this morning - but with the wind-chill felt even colder, maybe about -15 C.  It's the hummingbirds I feel most sorry for when it gets like this.  The feeders are frozen solid - I've got to remember to bring them inside tonight, and put them out at sunrise tomorrow morning.  And even then they will quickly freeze up again.  There are maybe 3 or 4 hummingbirds that use my feeders, and they've been either sitting on branches near to the feeders conserving their energy, hovering next to me when I bring out an unfrozen feeder, or being very protective about their only food source and chasing each other off them.  I wouldn't be surprised if they don't all survive this stretch of weather, but I hope at least some of them do.  Which means I will need to do tomorrow what I did today, and constantly swap the frozen feeders with thawed out ones as I cycle between them.