Tuesday’s Tidbits. #13

Good morning on this last Tuesday of March! It is a beautiful, sunny morning, but cold. My deck was booming and cracking loudly again this morning as I went to put the bird feeders back out. It was -2F (-19C) out there, plus a light wind which made it feel even colder. Yesterday our high was 20F (-7C) which is rather cold, even for us, for this time of the year.

And another cold night is coming up tonight and cold again tomorrow. But then it begins to moderate somewhat, though still colder than normal. That colder than normal is supposed to stay with us until the end of May apparently, though it will steadily warm up too, just not to where it should be. That means a late spring with lots of ice problems for a long while yet. Sigh.

This is Bentley, the Black-capped Chickadee.

It is hard to go walking when there is so much ice around. I have not been to the river for a long time, not since earlier in January. Being attacked by that dog kind of stopped me from trying again. Sigh. But I will be trying again soon, just waiting for slightly warmer temps to come along. Meanwhile I sit on the deck with the birds. And the squirrels, Jasper and Jasmine.

Those two are here every day now, and it is nice to see them back again. The birds are sure busy out there this morning. Cold weather does that. There are a lot of Evening grosbeaks and at least one Pine grosbeak is still here. She is late. Pine grosbeaks rarely stay beyond the middle of March. I just went out to put more seeds out for the Evening grosbeaks.

This is Chloe, the Boreal Chickadee.

Chloe, the Boreal chickadee was there too looking for some food. I put some peanut pieces on my hand and called to her. She came right away when she saw me, landing on my hand, picking up a piece of peanut, said thank you and off she went with it. That is solitude. It is still cold out there, not good weather to sit outside, but I might try it a little later.

Chloe comes by herself now. She used to come with Benson and Bridgette, the other two Boreal chickadees, but now they come by themselves. Chloe is probably one of their offspring from last year and stayed with her parents over the winter. That is quite common with some of our birds. It helps to ensure that at least one survives the winter.

This is Ned, the Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Hopefully she can find a mate now. Not many of those birds around here though, not this close to town anyway. The pics today were all from yesterday, except the top featured image which is a Pine Siskin, from last week. I went shopping yesterday morning and nothing happened. Quite amazing for me. Usually something funny happens. Oh well. I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.