Warmish Night

This morning's low temperature was 33 (at our house). Good sign. In the last few days, we've seen our junco as well as spruce grouse, and of course, the chickadees, nuthatches and jays. Stellar jays, 3 of them, still occasionally coming in for peanuts. We have heard a woodpecker in the near woods, but have not seen him/her. Snowshoe hares are starting to turn tan. Our one black-capped chickadee with the deformed beak, is still surviving, but his poor beak is becoming more and more deformed. It's long, curved in opposite directions, almost like a crossbill, and he works very hard to scoop up seeds or peanut butter.

We hope to report some more spring birds soon.

Spring Visitor

Yesterday, late morning, a sharp-shinned hawk flew into the yard and sat on our back porch railing for a few moments. We were so surprised and pleased to see him up close. Needless to say, the backyard cleared out of all other birds. For about 10 minutes after he visited our porch, we saw no birds in the backyard. Last summer we had two different hawks come to perch in the backyard, and so we wondered if one of them had returned, or if they all know that there is prey to be had back there.

Spring has Sprung

Five below here this morning, but the days are getting longer. We saw our friend, the brown creeper, this morning. Also had our pine siskins, nuthatches, stellar jays, and chickadees in for feeding. The other day we watched as a redpoll sat in a spruce and ate spruce cone seeds, seeds fluttering away in the breeze, and reflected on why we haven't had redpolls to our feeders this winter. A spruce grouse walked over our deck the other day, on its way to some exposed gravel in the front yard under the spruces there.

Sunny days, cold nights. Looking forward to breakup.

The Kinglet

This morning, our little golden-crowned kinglet was flitting thru the spruces trees for about 30 seconds. And our junco sighting has turned into an almost-daily one. We're glad to see the temps rise a bit today. Windy too. Of course, we have still seen all the usual winter birds. One chickadee with a deformed beak, getting worse by the day. Snowshoe hares are still coming in, pure white. And an occasional moose tromping thru and getting the birdseed that is available to their snout and tongue.

We've heard and seen big flocks of redpolls, as well as small groups of crossbills, no visits to the feeders though. So many spruce cones and seeds for them.

Our kinglet has been here all winter, apparently. We've seen him about 5 or 6 times since November. That's a first for us.

Hell Freezing Over

Slightly melodramatic - but, after a bit of a warming trend in early February, suddenly the night-time temperature has dropped to minus 15 or more (depending on location) and daytime is not much warmer, as today, at 11 AM it's still only 9. We have seen a number of large flocks of redpolls and siskins flying over various times during the day. Siskins still visit our feeders pretty regularly. One of our black-capped chickadees has a seriously deformed bill which keeps getting worse and worse, looking like a crossbill beak. He is on the feeder constantly, trying to survive. It's so sad. Hope we don't see any more of those.

So a little later in the day, I am editing my earlier post because since I wrote at about 11 AM, I suddenly saw a junco at our feeder, the first one we've seen all winter. I had heard reports of them elsewhere in the area, but not here. So that was great, one new bird. Then a few moments later, my husband looked out and saw a Golden-crowned Kinglet! This little bird has been showing up at our feeders on these very cold days, this is the 4th or 5th time we have seen him this winter. What a special treat. Worth adding to the blog.

Redpolls

This morning, with temp of 11 degrees, clear skies, and lots of new fresh snow, I finally saw a decent-sized group of redpolls clustered around the top of one of our tallest spruces, awaiting the first sunlight. Approximately 10 redpolls (plus or minus) sat there, chirping away. I went out to fatten up the feeders, and their birdsong was actually more melodious than I had remembered. It makes me so happy to hear and see them, probably because these little visitors that usually throng in huge numbers to our feeders, have been conspicuously absent this winter. The normal cycle of redpolls coming in for feed is reassuring.

Later on: We saw our brown creeper around 12:30 PM. Approx. 12-15 pine siskins kept visiting our feeders off and on all day. No redpolls at the feeders. Our snowshoe hare showed up and stayed in close to our house. Totally white, with dark-ish ears and black eyes, very soft padded feet.

Storm Birds

A foot of new snow, and now we have a flock 12 or more pine siskins! It is great to see a few more of our usual winter visitors. Yesterday two spruce grouse burst out of the snow-laden spruce branches while Tom put seeds on the feeder, they were close enough to him that their wings brushed the top of his cap. Magpies fly in and scatter the siskins. Chickadees and nuthatches keep us entertained. Beautiful snowy day.