goldfinches etc. at Winter feeders
Photo by J. Harrington
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Woodpeckers, pileated, red-bellied, hairy and downy (in descending order of size, but not appearance at the feeders) pound on slabs of frozen suet and, occasionally, one or another of the smaller species will grab a sunflower seed.
downy woodpecker feeding on suet
Photo by J. Harrington
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Chickadees briefly forego their "fee-bee" calls to land, grab and fly away with a sunflower seed. Several white-breasted nuthatches ("whi, whi, whi....") also appear, take a seed, and fly away. Cardinals, most notably a male showing bright red against white snow, have begun "what-cheer, cheer" Spring songs from near the tops of snow-covered trees. Then a male, sometimes accompanied by a female, will be seen feeding on the ground or at the copper feeder which has a tray on the bottom. The same feeder favored by local red and gray squirrels. (The whitetail deer prefer the tube feeder in front of the house.)
red squirrel approaching heated birdbath
Photo by J. Harrington
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Some days we've counted as many as half-a-dozen red squirrels concurrently twitching their way across the snow surrounding the front feeder, the one nearest a wood lot of trees that provide a safety factor. Squirrels, aided and abetted by blue jays, are successfully clearing several inches of freshly fallen snow, accumulated on top of a number of branches. Smaller birds like chickadees and nuthatches then clear what's left so the perches soon become snow-free. Other branches remain untouched. We wonder why.
Much of this posting has been written to establish that, with more and more bird species starting their Spring songs, and squirrels starting to chase each other around, we are not alone in looking forward to the transition from Winter to Spring. How do we know that the bird songs are actually mating calls and not complaints about the harshness of the season?
On the First Day She Made Birds
He asked me if I had a choicewhat kind of birdwould I choose to be.I know what he thought I’d saysince he tried to endmy sentences half the timeanyway. Something exotiche thought. He thoughtmaybe macaw.That would fitall loudmouthedand primary coloredhe would think.(He thinks too muchI always thought.)But really at heartI’m moredon’t laugh nowan L B Jlittle brown jobexcept exceptI’m not theflit frombranchto branch typesuch a wasteof energy all thatwing flapand scritch scritch scratch.Really nowcan you see meseed pod clampedbetween my beaklike some landowner,Havana cigarclenchedbetween his teeth?No I think notI thinkgreen heron.You ask why?Personalitymainly.That hunched lookwings tucked to neckwaiting waitingin the sunon a wide slab of rockalongside a slow riverlike some old manup from a bad night’s dreamwhere he’s seen his coffinand you say to himHave a nice dayand he says Make me.Oh you want looksI’ll give youlooks:long olive green feathersa trace ofiridescenceI could standgoing out iridescentchestnut sides and heada black crownyes a crownsomething regalto flash when you gettoo closedark bill brightyellow legsand that creamy streakdown my throat and pecsgoodnot greatbut good pecsjust enough for a quickhop to the next.The best partno sexual dimorphismmale femaleboth alikeendless possibilities.
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