Wednesday Words. #6 Winter Color.

Good morning to all of you! What a beautiful morning it is too! The temp is 23F (-5C) and it is cloudy. Yesterday the high was the same temp it is now and today it is supposed to reach 34F (1C), like it did on Monday. Might be a nice day for a walk, hopefully a bit longer than what I have been doing lately. Perhaps all the way to the river again. It was a bit slippery yesterday, so I kept my walk short.

This is certainly an odd winter all around. Not much walking due to the snow and other weather conditions. And not many birds. That continues for yesterday and today. It was daylight for an hour before the first chickadees showed up. One flock of chickadees went right past my place and continued up the hill. So, someone else is feeding birds close by. Though it is odd that birds would pass by a closer feeder to go to one farther away.

Winter color, in birds at the feeders, like these male Evening Grosbeaks.

That is opposite to what they would normally do. But maybe that shrike had something to do with it. The birds probably did not feel safe here anymore, so they went elsewhere. It is a thought anyway. There were 2 pine grosbeaks here this morning, both females, but they were only here less than 10 minutes, then they flew off somewhere else. Pine grosbeaks will be heading back north soon. Last year they were gone by the end of February, but some years they will stay until mid March.

And this male Pine Grosbeak, with a couple of Common Redpolls in the foreground.

They breed much further north, close to where trees end and tundra begins. Do any of you have RLS? I do, and it has been terrible lately. All day and all night. It will keep me awake until after midnight when it finally settles down enough that I can fall asleep. But then it will wake me up and hour later worse than ever. I do have medication that helps with it or I would not be sleeping at all lately. Still, I am not getting much sleep. It is bothering me a lot right now, which is making it hard to sit and do this post.

That is what made me think of asking. Oh well, I am not complaining, just wondering if anyone else has it. My tube bird feeders are at it again, just like every winter. It will be hanging perfectly still, like the others, but then it begins to swing, just a little, until it is finally swinging quite wildly. Then it slows down and stops. Then in a couple minutes it begins to swing again, then stops.

And, of course, our Blue Jays, like Baxter above.

The other hanging feeders do not move at all. There is no wind, nothing at all that would cause those tube feeders to move like that. But it happens. Very unusual really. There must be a reason, but I cannot figure it out. Oh well, one of those mysteries that take place. I hope you have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.