Fantastical Friday! #28

Good morning everyone and Happy Friday to you as well! The snow has finally stopped and the wind is not quite as bad now. It snowed quite a bit overnight so there is 9 inches of new snow covering the ground, and everything else. It was quite a time yesterday with the snow and the temp hovering right around 32F (0C) which caused just a bit of melting/freezing so my hanging feeders finally froze completely and the birds were unable to get seeds. I kept going outside about every 30 minutes to knock ice off of them but I finally lost the fight since the bottom seeds were finally wet and they froze also, which blocked any seeds from coming out the feeders.

But my one funny looking feeder fared very well so the chickadees and nuthatches were able to get seeds all through the storm. It was a bit trickier for the grosbeaks and they finally gave up and left for the day, except for half a dozen that stayed around. I brought the feeders inside overnight to thaw them out and dry them as well, so everything is fine this morning. It’s cold enough that there is no melting today so it will be okay for the day. Hmm, the wind seems to be stronger again now. Oddly there is not much activity at the feeders today, I thought it would be very busy, that’s normal after a storm.

There is a lot of chickadees however, and I saw one nuthatch. I think most of the blue jays were here earlier, none around now though. There was a lot of evening grosbeaks for about 10 minutes, but something scared them away and they have not come back, that is more than an hour ago. I saw a robin in the neighbors cherry tree eating the cherries. I imagine he is sorry that he did not leave before the storm. Robins can survive our winters if there is enough berries for them to eat, but often they die in March because the food supply has all been eaten by that time.

There were some Bohemian waxwings here yesterday as well, in that same cherry tree, but they did not stay around for long. They are one of our normal winter birds from the far north. This storm should bring in a lot more of our northern friends over the next couple of weeks. I hope we get a good number of pine grosbeaks at the feeder this winter. They were not around much last winter. Baxter and Betty, the blue jays, are sitting out here waiting for their mid morning snack. Now they are happy with some more peanuts. Have a fantastical Friday everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.