Thursday, January 2, 2014

A Nor'Easter and No Birdseed

I feel guilty.  A foot of snow is predicted, and I have no birdseed in my feeder.  We have entertained a lot in the last week, though, so there are stale chips, crackers, nuts and other leftovers available to toss onto the deck.  I also chopped up an apple.  I know the birds could peck at it, but if I don't chop it up, the squirrels will carry it away whole.

So far, my donations have attracted Tufted Titmice and Dark-Eyed Juncos.   Dark-Eyed Juncos like to shuffle on the ground to stir up something good to eat, and that's what they were doing on my tabletop.  I caught some pictures with the snow flying from their little dance.  Some people call them "snowbirds", and that's certainly a fitting nickname today.






Since the weather was not conducive to being outdoors (wind chill), and because the roads were slick and dangerous, and I was almost out of gas, I decided to stay home and just enjoy these little visitors to my deck.  Sometimes I think I appreciate them more when I can just watch them close up like this, see their feathers and coloring up close, and watch them enjoying their food as the storm ramps up.




This junco had a lot of brown feathers and was quite handsome.

2 comments:

  1. Dawn,
    I think you are so right. My most enjoyably memories of bird watching or butterflies are when I have just been sitting quietly and they have appeared allowing me to watch them closely. Most often, because I have limited time, I rush to see them and then have to leave to get back to work! I think your snowy weather is due to arrive with us on Sunday. We have been having storm after storm for weeks now due to the Jet Stream being directly overhead. I just replaced a sheet of corrugated perspex on our chicken run two days ago, only to see it flying over the garden this morning! I hope you manage to get some bird seed soon!

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    1. Birdseed restocked as of today! Hope it was soon enough. It was bitterfly cold last night and today. Hope your chickens are protected again too! How many do you have?

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