Thursday’s Thoughts With Coffee. #5

Hello everyone! It is another brutally cold day out there! And there is a strong wind out there as well which just makes things even colder. Frostbite can happen within 3 minutes today on any exposed skin. So now we have a temperature that has reached -42F (-41C). Still, that is far from our coldest record for our town of -80F (-62C) which is much too cold for anything except staying indoors. But of course I did not do that.

However, that is not for today. Still, maybe it will be. I could save my other story for another day. Like tomorrow. It is going to warm up though, on the weekend, but we have one more terribly cold night, which will be tonight. The poor birds out there, what few there are around. Those poor nuthatches seem to have the hardest time.

Male Pine Grosbeak last year. Check this photo with the next one, notice something similar between these two birds?

They eat at the suet feeders for a minute or so, then they hop down onto the railing and sit on their feet for a couple of minutes, then back to the suet again. I have been breaking open peanuts for them this week to help them out a bit more. Peanuts give them good food, but also quick and lasting heat for their little bodies. And they do not have to spend energy trying to open sunflower seeds which is harder for nuthatches than it is for chickadees.

But even the chickadees quickly come for the shelled peanuts. Less work on these cold days is a plus for all the birds. There was even a few evening grosbeaks out here this morning, though as usual, they did not stay long. But there was also a couple of pine grosbeaks, a male and female. They stayed around much longer feasting on the sunflower seeds and sitting down on their feet to keep them warm. All the birds are doing that today.

This is the female Pine Grosbeak. She is doing the same thing, same spot.

Weather like this can quickly kill off a lot of birds if they do not find enough food for the day. They need a certain amount of food each day in order to keep them through the long cold nights. Birds that can find feeders are the fortunate ones, they always get enough food. But by Monday we will have some beautiful spring like weather with temps up around 28F (-2C). That is going to feel quite warm after this bitterly cold weather.

Back on our coldest day on record, which was actually 3 days in a row where the temperature really did not change much day or night, was when I challenged my cold tolerance. I was kind of crazy back then and did not mind trying things that were rather, um, stupid to do. Hmm, come to think of it, I guess I am still kind of crazy these days. Oh well. Anyway, a friend of mine called me and asked if I would like to go for a walk that day. I looked out the window.

Female Evening Grosbeak last fall when it was warm.

Nothing but a grayish kind of look out there, partly from blowing snow, partly from mist rising from the open water. Yep, no matter how cold it gets, there is always open water on that river, and even places on the lake. But I enthusiastically said yes and we were on our way. It was for a good cause though, my friends parents lived on an island and needed their medication, so we were taking it out to them. We could drive across the lake on the ice road, but once we got to the island we needed to walk.

About one mile across the island and through a frozen swamp. We were quite frozen by the time we arrived even though we were well dressed for the cold. We did get to warm up before heading back to his truck. That was a good thing, it would have been a little difficult otherwise. I was very happy to finally get back home though.

It took a while to warm up again though. I was thinking about that walk as I took the garbage out to he street this morning. It was just plain cold out there. No way else to say it. I think I came close to frostbite today. Oh well. Time for another cup of coffee. Would you like one too? Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.