What a treat to rush outdoors at dawn and not have my fingers immediately turn to ice, even though I had not stopped to don my polar gear.
There was a much more cheerful song coming from the bushes where the DD birds were waking to such a balmy morning.
Of late their tune has been a little shrill and their seed bowls each morning empty but for husks.
Recently it’s been: “Come on, old woman, we’re cold and hungry! Hurry it up, will you!”
Today it was much gentler: “Oh, there she is, the nice lady who feeds us, good morning!”
It was certainly a different tune, whatever the interpretation.
Who can blame them? I’d be grumpy too if I was huddled in a tree all night in sub-zero weather.
Sadly, I’m afraid Winter is not done with us yet.
The groundhog “saw his shadow” today.
Which is supposed to mean there will be six more weeks of winter. No big surprise there.
Anyway it’s whole load of rubbish, because no self-respecting groundhog is going to be out and about at the beginning of February to either see, or not see his shadow.
Why are they allowed to drag poor “Punxsutawney Phil out of hibernation every year anyway?”
It’s a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition and this morning was the 136th time a groundhog has had his slumber disturbed. It’s not right.
Last year Mr Burley did not emerge until March 24th.
He then consumed everything in sight.
Today’s Spring-like weather is not expected to last, with another storm on it’s way up from Texas. Today’s snow melt will combine with tomorrow’s predicted sleet and by Friday I’ll be back in my muck boots and heavy coat.
Beyond that, who knows? Winter started so late, but everything’s haywire…
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Our bird song may revert to grumbling for a while.
Wild bird food seems to be getting scarce but hopefully our sources won’t run out.
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Since I abandoned the idea of creating an ice sculpture this year, I decided to concentrate on capturing images of frost on the garage windows. These are from January 27th. It fascinates me that they are always different.
No doubt it’s all to do with specific temperature, humidity and wind strength and direction?
As an experiment I wiped the windows which were certainly overdue for it! I wanted to see how this would affect the formations.
The next opportunity to examine the result was on January 31st, when I got this image.
When it’s so very cold, my fingers really hurt, so after a few quick shots I ran back indoors.
Consequently, it was not until I downloaded the photographs that I noticed anything amiss.
Then I immediately ran back to the garage, just as Grant drove in. What we discovered was quite upsetting.
Around all the window sills and over a lot of the window panes there were traces of blood in patterns that suggested a frenzied search for escape.
We searched the garage thoroughly but could find no corpse. We feel it must have been a bird that got trapped, although we did not find a single feather which you might expect in the circumstances.
Grant had made a hole in the upstairs door in case a bird ever got trapped, so we hope that it eventually found its way out.
It is very distressing to think of a bird (we can’t think what else it could have been) in such a frenzy that it injured itself.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we can only hope that it survived.
My mind can’t quite purge the images.
There is no artist who can match Mother Nature. Many try, some get close, but none can match!
I agree.
I was thinking about your DD birds’ song tune … it’s amazing how (the very same) “song tune” can sound different when we’re warm and cozy as to being cold and hungry (even in us humans). Oh, and love your patterns of the frost almost as much as did last year’s ice sculptures!
Thank you!
They should leave the groundhog in peace, and just look out of the window, like I do.
Best wishes, Pete.
Could not agree more!