Wednesday Words. #5 Oh Deer.

Good morning everyone! Well, it is another cold day, though not quite so bad as it has been. It is about 5 degrees warmer. Okay, that is not much, I admit, but it is something. Tomorrow night is supposed to be the last very cold night, at least for a while. It is cloudy again this morning as well. Usually it does not get this cold when it is cloudy, but it happens, like today for example.

The chickadees, nuthatches and at least 2 blue jays have been here this morning. There are only a dozen chickadees now by the looks of things. There was about 30 of them at the beginning of winter. It could be the shrike that is responsible for the reduction of chickadee numbers. There are at least 4 nuthatches still, down by 1. It is such a change from last year when on February 1st I had around 200 birds coming to the feeders and double that number by the middle of February.

The buck above is one I called Major.

This is the least number of birds I have had since moving to this apartment. I am going to try and feed birds well into spring this year and hopefully I can attract some new birds around to photograph. And hopefully I will not attract some big, black, furry animals to my feeders. That might be quite a challenge, but I do want to try anyway. I had some different birds show up last year, so I would like to try again. It is a great way to bring birds in close enough to get some nice pictures of them. I am sharing some deer photos today.

For those who may not know, these are all White-tailed Deer. And they do have very bright white tails. The underside of the tail anyway. When running from danger they always raise their tails causing that bright white to show nicely. Actually, they will do it every time they run, even when they are just running around for fun. And they do enjoy running around. There was a doe out here last weekend doing just that. She was out back here running in a large circle up and down the hill.

This is Mama D and one of her fawns.

She was not running away from something, she was just running. I did not think they would do so in cold weather, but obviously they do. Muffin was just up for her midmorning snack and now she has gone to bed on top of some tall shelving I have by the west window. She likes it up there. It is close to the ceiling where it is the warmest, plus she can look out the window from there and watch the birds in the trees. What could be better? It is February now.

Even though there is likely 3 more months of winter, it still feels good to be in February now. We are about half way through winter, the days are getting longer, about 1 hour and 25 minutes longer now. Mostly in the late afternoon. But we are gaining some daylight in the morning too, just not as quickly. Spring. Such a nice thought.

Another photo of Major.

It is warmer. More photo opportunities. It is warmer. New growth beginning. It is warmer. Much better for walking. Plus it is warmer. A lot of good things about spring. Sigh. Muffin agrees with me too. She is not excited about winter at all this year. The sun is shining again. And it is time for another cup of coffee. I hope you enjoy the winter photos at the top of each post. Thank you for joining us again today! I have another story ready for tomorrow. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.