Is there a "typical" WInter's day?

It's a cold, sunny day (more cold than sunny). Early morning found a female cardinal temporarily trapped inside our screened patio. Fortunately, she was noticed before one of the homeowners released one of the household's canines onto said patio so the dog could go take care of some business. Instead, said dog was told to cross his legs for a bit. The homeowner then put on hat, gloves, warm clothes, etc., grabbed a handy trout landing net and stepped through the walkout door onto the patio. The female cardinal promptly flew against several screened panels, then down into the corner, where she discovered the hole previously chewed in the screen by a red squirrel. The bird flew threw the hole, and seemed to be cursing the homeowner for disturbing and harassing her. Homeowner collected dog with crossed legs, let him out, waited, let dog back in and proceeded to remove the no longer required warm clothes, put away landing net and poured a cup of coffee as a reward for jobs well done. The joys of country living!

downy woodpecker feeding on suet

Photo by J. Harrington

So far today the following have been seen at a feeder (sunflower or suet) and/or the birdbath:

• downy woodpecker
• hairy woodpecker
• chickadee
• white breasted nuthatch
• red breasted nuthatch 
• bluejay
• male cardinal
• female cardinal
• red squirrel
• gray squirrel

The Better Half and Yr. Ob't. Svt. have been contemplating planting Winterberry seeds for Winter color and as bird and wildlife food. As I checked the planting suggestions online, I was reminded that the berries are poisonous to humans, dogs, etc. Our dogs show a typical two-year-old's habit of putting anything they can into their mouths. As annoyed as I sometimes get, I wouldn't want to poison them. I also don't want to have to walk each of them on a lead instead of letting them loose in the back yard during Wintertime. We'll see if we can get some sort of read on how attractive Winterberries might be to canines before we commit to planting. Maybe we could try a few as houseplants, out of reach of dogs' mouths? More joys of country living!

red breasted nuthatch feeding on suet

Photo by J. Harrington

Winter and the Nuthatch

by Mary Oliver

Once or twice and maybe again, who knows,
the timid nuthatch will come to me
if I stand still, with something good to eat in my hand.
The first time he did it
he landed smack on his belly, as though
the legs wouldn't cooperate. The next time
he was bolder. Then he became absolutely
wild about those walnuts.

But there was a morning I came late and, guess what,
the nuthatch was flying into a stranger's hand.
To speak plainly, I felt betrayed.
I wanted to say: Mister,
that nuthatch and I have a relationship.
It took hours of standing in the snow
before he would drop from the tree and trust my fingers.
But I didn't say anything.

Nobody owns the sky or the trees.
Nobody owns the hearts of birds.
Still, being human and partial therefore to my own successes—
though not resentful of others fashioning theirs—

I'll come tomorrow, I believe, quite early. 

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