Good morning everyone! The second day of December is here, the last month of the year. This year has flown by amazingly fast, even though I don’t get out as much as I used to prior to this pandemic. Actually, I don’t go out much at all, not even walking, since the end of July especially. Yet the time still flies by quickly. I hope that means winter will also go by quickly again like it did last winter. Heavy clouds are out there again today, so it remained dark a lot longer than normal this morning. But I went out at 7:20 anyway, turned the deck light on and brought out the feeders.

I put up the first feeder and heard a noise, there was a chickadee on the feeder already getting a seed. I said good morning and he chirped. Then I was surrounded by several chickadees waiting for me to hang up the feeders. I’m thinking that turning on my deck light is waking up the chickadees. “The light is on guys, wake up, it’s breakfast time!” And they come flying in from across the street. That’s where this early group is from. Actually most of the chickadees come from across the street, but some come, and go, from other directions.

And it wasn’t long before both species of nuthatches also showed up, though the white-breasted nuthatch was first of the two. It was melting quite a bit yesterday as the temperature climbed to 36F (2C), which is not overly warm, but with the wind it helped cut the snow down quite a bit. Now everything is frozen again with a temp of 23F (-5C) this morning, and that’s as warm as it will get today, with colder days ahead. But still not bad for this time of the year.

Well, I was hoping that little redpoll that was here a couple days ago would bring some more with her the next day. It didn’t work out that way and she never returned either. So I only have 6 different species this winter, at least so far anyway. But I am very thankful for all these little birds that come around to brighten up each day. While I was putting the feeders out this morning a small flock of goldeneye ducks flew past heading down to the river for a day of fishing. I wonder how many ducks decided to stay this winter? It’s time for more coffee, also time to put out more peanuts. Thank you for stopping by, have a great day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin. (the top featured image is a raven)

©2021 Steve McLeod.