Good morning to all of you on this very cold Wednesday! It was -31F (-35C) this morning, and that is just too cold. It is well below normal for temperatures for this time of the year. Exposed skin can freeze very quickly at this temperature. On the plus side, this is the last cold day for a while. It begins to warm up tomorrow and we will be back to above normal temperatures for a while. That will be much nicer.

Maybe my windows will defrost a bit so I can see outside again. The only window that does not frost over is the bedroom window. The other windows in this apartment are very old, so they have heavy frost on them right now. That makes it impossible to see the birds, unless I go outside. However, I do not really want to go outside on days like this. Too cold for me. I prefer to stay inside with my cup of coffee. Like right now.

Anyone else want some coffee? I am about to make some more. This first pot disappeared rather quickly. The sun is shining on the tops of the trees, contrasting their sparkly branches against the blue sky. We had ice crystals falling earlier this morning, so many things still have a sparkly look to them when the sun is shining directly on the object. It is not quite as nice as sometimes however, the ice crystals did not last long enough I guess. Not quite nice enough for pictures.

It would be beautiful down at the river though. But I do not plan on walking down there in this weather. Perhaps on Friday, it is going to be much nicer weather by then. There is not much bird activity today. The chickadees and nuthatches are here like always and the woodpeckers show up now and then, there is one hairy woodpecker out there right now.

There are not many blue jays this morning. After 2 hours half of their breakfast supply of peanuts are still out there. That is amazing. They are usually gone in 10 minutes. I guess in this cold weather, the blue jays do not want to travel far, and most of them come from quite a distance away. But they hide peanuts to use on days like this, that way they do not use up a lot of extra energy flying long distances. And they have a good memory, they can remember where they hide food up to 13 months, according to studies done.

All of our resident birds will hide food for winter use, and all have good memories like the blue jays. It is important to have this ability so they can survive our long, cold winters. Hmm, not a bad idea. I should try that, then I would not have to go out until spring. Wait, I still have to feed the birds. Oh well, it was a nice thought anyway. Time for more coffee, how about you? I hope you have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.