Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #30.
Good morning everyone! The coffee is ready, nice and hot, just help yourself and relax with us for awhile. It’s a mild morning with a temp of 15F (-9C), cloudy and white. That means we got some new snow overnight, about 2 inches (5cm). Which is what they forecast, which is a first for this winter. Jasper is out there running around in the trees pretending to be a snowplow again. I’m sure he must really enjoy that and he certainly makes that snow fly! There he goes again, only this time he’s running on those big branches upside down. Amazing how fast he can go on the underside of those branches!
The hairy woodpecker is here so the downy woodpecker has to wait his turn, after all, he’s only half the size of the hairy woodpecker. Actually he doesn’t even look that big. While I was outside shoveling the snow off my deck, it was still dark, and the goldeneye ducks kept flying past heading to the river. Some were in small flocks, some were alone, but all heading to the same general place. That place is below the dam, must be good fishing right there. They will spread out all along the open water, but the favorite spot is right below the dam. The chickadees were here first again and Theodore, the wild turkey, came about the same time. He startled me a bit when he flew in and landed on the feeder. “Hi Theodore,” I said. Gerbil, gerbil (pronounced grr bil, quite quiet). “You want to know when spring arrives? That’s a long time yet,” I tell him. Gerbil, gerbil? “Yes, winter can be long around here. This must be your first winter.” Gerbil, gerbil. “Yes, it can get cold too, sometimes that cold can last for weeks. Gerbil, gerbil! “No, you won’t die, and there is always lots of food here for you.” Gerbil, gerbil. “You’re welcome.
What happened to your tail?” Gerbil, gerbil! “Oh, it keeps getting caught in the branches. That would be a problem. But it will grow out nicely for spring so you can use it to attract a mate.” Gerbil, gerbil. “Oh, you haven’t seen any other turkeys around here. Hmm, that’s a problem, but maybe more will show up in the spring. I’ll let you eat now.” Gerbil, gerbil. “You’re welcome.” After Theodore was finished he jumped to the ground. A bunch of little birds flew up when he did and Jasper went running back up a tree. I guess Theodore’s size scares the other critters at times. The evening grosbeaks have arrived, the feeder is completely full and there is still many sitting in the trees waiting to come down. They’ve started filling the hanging feeder too. I’m glad that feeder has worked out so well. Thank you so much for coming today. Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #29.
Good morning everyone! Coffee is ready, just help yourself, sit back and relax for a few minutes with us this morning. Muffin, of course, is eagerly waiting by the door to greet you! It is quite a bit milder today with a temp of 3F (-16C). Surprisingly it warmed up overnight, but we have a fairly strong south wind bringing in the milder air, plus a little snow later today. But the next 7 days is supposed to be quite mild so that will be a nice way to begin the New Year. We had a great day for birds yesterday. The evening grosbeaks, about 30 of them, were around for most of the morning and certainly ate a lot of sunflower seeds, normal for such a cold day. The pine grosbeaks were here too, but at different times than the other grosbeaks. Guess they don’t like a crowded restaurant, perhaps they like to practice physical distancing.
It’s not quite so busy at the feeders today, but the evening grosbeaks were here for awhile, but something scared them and off they went, and they haven’t been back. I haven’t seen the pine grosbeaks yet, but then, I wasn’t home for awhile. I left the blue jays peanuts outside before I left to go shopping and about a third of the peanuts were still there. That’s very odd, normally they would have all been gone before that time. The birds are very irregular this winter, that has to do with the mild winter we have had so far. And the fact more people are feeding birds this winter. The chickadees are very busy this morning, and the nuthatches and I see the female hairy woodpecker has just shown up as well. The woodpeckers are always around, I guess they really like what this restaurant serves.
The redpolls always come around after the grosbeaks so they can go through all those empty shells and pick out the bits and pieces that get left behind. That way nothing is lost. Wow, those evening grosbeaks are coming back now in bunches of 4 to 6, still coming in. Must be over 40 of them now. They filled the main feeder, and the hanging feeder below it, and now they’re filling up the smaller feeder by the window. And there’s still more in the trees. Hmm, a quick count says there are more than 50 of them. That many grosbeaks can go through a lot of sunflower seeds in a short time! It is certainly nice to see them however. There is mostly males this winter, that usually means a bad winter, while the females take the young further south where survival is better. Even though the weather has been nice, their natural food supply is not good, so perhaps that’s it. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 