Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee Time #99. More Snow And Other Things.
Good morning everyone! And welcome back to winter! It actually feels like winter never left us, and yet I know we did have some beautiful spring days for a while. Now it’s all white again. But we have lots of hot coffee to enjoy while we relax a bit this morning. Yesterday we ended up with a little over an inch (3cm) of snow, which is not much, but it did make things white as you can see in the pics. Most of that snow was gone by evening, which was good for all the little birds that had returned from the south, like the juncos which had become quite abundant. And robins, flickers and grackles. All those birds rely on bare ground to find food. Then it snowed some more overnight. There was 2 inches (5cm) on my deck and 3 inches (7.5cm) on the ground.
So I went down and cleared the snow in some spots and spread seeds for all the little birds. Where did they all go? Only one junco showed up, and two grackles. There was easily a hundred juncos around before the snow and a dozen grackles. But there was a lone robin chirping cheerfully in a tree, letting us all know that spring will return again. And if the forecast is right, that should be Thursday. On the plus side, I haven’t seen the bears around since the colder weather hit. Maybe they went back to bed. That’s okay, whatever the reason not having them around right now makes things easier for me. The chickadees are still busy and the white-breasted nuthatches, and yesterday the two purple finches were here as well. The squirrels were busy yesterday, haven’t seen them today though.
I think my chipmunks have gone back to bed as well, they haven’t been around. Don’t blame them, running around the snow in bare feet would not be fun at all. I didn’t see any blue jays yesterday, but Baxter was here this morning picking up some peanuts to bring back to Betty who is likely sitting on the nest trying to keep her eggs warm. But Baxter is good, he’ll make sure she gets lots of nutritious food. Chickadees and nuthatches should be nesting now too, but they nest inside trees so it should be a bit warmer and more cozy for them in this weather. Hmm, I was going to tell about something else this morning too and here I go wandering around again instead. Oh well, I’ll save it for tomorrow now instead. It is something quite funny with one chipmunk and 3 squirrels. These chipmunks really do think. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve’s Bird Of The Day #52.
Hi everyone and welcome back! Today’s bird is the “double-crested cormorant”, though that double crest is not always easy to see unless you’re fairly close to the bird. These are a rather odd type water bird that has less preen oil for their feathers than other water birds like ducks. So their feathers can get quite wet, therefore they spend a lot of time resting on rocks, in trees, on buildings, with their wings outstretched to dry them. They will even swim with their wings outstretched. They will also often swim with only their head and neck sticking out of the water. They are an excellent diving bird and their diet is almost totally fish. They make an odd grunting noise to communicate. They nest in colonies in trees or on the ground, their nests can be up to 3 feet (1 meter) across. The male chooses the nest site and provides most of the nesting material while the female builds the nest. They will lay up to 7 eggs. The chicks often congregate together while parents are out fishing and return to their own nests for feeding. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 