January-feathers and things-Part 3
I braved the snow, put up the sun umbrella, bungeed it to the old realtor post/bird feeder hanger and sat under it with my folding chair for 20 minutes, it was too cold! I am a wimp! But beautiful! The Tree Sparrows were very lively! I should take a picture of my set up, occasionally if the snow is wet the umbrella collapses on me, covering me and my chair in it, defeating the purpose but hey, you do what you can in this never ending snow!
The Woodpeckers and the Jays are fun to photograph in the snow, they just go about their business puffed up and ready to eat! I love those huge flakes, and we’ve had enough of them! They plowed the road at 2am this morning, saw the headlights, then were back this afternoon with the big tractor to widen the road as it was getting tight, in preparation for this weekends snow, probably Sunday night, yes, more, another 15-30 cm? I like these plow guys, they think ahead and do an amazing job, they too are running out places to put the snow! Thank you Bosman’s All Weather/Mayfour Contracting for the great job you are doing! The birds, hey, keep feeding us lady!
So it hasn’t been all snow, we had a clear break this morning! We could see the sun, I got last night’s snow shoveled off most of the paths, then, yes…a snow squall hit. Ha! No more shoveling until next week I say!
Those colours pop in the sun! The three wise snowmen were buried this morning so I had to rescue them! They keep feeding their feathered friends!
No new comers. Waiting for the Redpolls and Pine Grosbeaks, hopefully they will show up soon! The Evening Grosbeaks stop by once or twice a week. Sometimes a few, sometimes the entire flock! They are so bright and cheerful, and hilarious to watch landing and taking off!
The Red Bellied Woodpeckers have been busy at the suet block. I hung some colourful corn, thinking the birds might like it but all it did was make the Red bellies very wary, some strange thing hanging near their suet block! The faces they made, like when they check to make sure no Mewberries are about! Ha!
The small flocks of Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos appear after the cats have their walk! Short walks, they are tired of the white stuff too! Shovel me a path Hooman!
I usually throw some seed on the ground for the small feathered guys and the mourning doves to clean up.
They all seem to get along, of course there is a “pecking” order…drum roll…badumptadum, maybe we could learn something from them…Ha!
Sometimes I just sit and watch, OK, mostly I do that and take pictures but sometimes it’s just nice to observe!
I love the Black-capped Chickadees, they just stoically go about their business;)
I did have a wonderful encounter with a Barred Owl on the road. I went for a morning walk to check for downed branches after one of the many windy nights…I was spreading sand by hand on the hill as it was sheet ice and looked up out of the corner of my eye and there is was. I’d already walked past it several times flinging my sand/salt here and there!
It was more concerned with the flock of crows that flew by behind me squawking at nothing in particular, it stayed motionless, watching. It had something in it’s sights for lunch!
Such a treat to see these beautiful birds! I watch along the road hoping to see others, or simply this beautiful Barred Owl. I felt so lucky it stayed put as I photographed it:) “Go on your way Hooman!” I did:)
I’ll leave you with our Red Bellied friends. There was some spatting going on last week, not sure if it was territorial or they were simply as cranky as I was with the snow! Ha! It looked like the Mrs. chasing off a Mr. someone was having a bad day! We all get those occasionally! Saludos amigos! Fingers crossed we won’t be battling gigantic mounds of snow!
