Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Snow, birds and deer

Prompt: winter birds



We have a lot of birds that brave the weather here in the winter. Cardinals, doves, titmouse, bluejays, chickadee, nuthatch, and some I forgot to name all show up at the feeder daily. Also, crows show up regularly, but do not usually mingle with the smaller birds.

Whatever parrot pellets are discarded to the bottom of the parrot cages are recycled to the ground at the bottom of the feeder. This is a treat to the crows who check out the ground daily to find whatever pellets may have been thrown out.

Doves are hatching eggs as early in the year as March here. When I first learned this, I was surprised because March weather is not to be trusted. It can be blizzards or warm enough to grow grass.

The birds will fly in to clean out the feeder even if the wind gusts are in the 40 mile per hour range. We have wooded areas heavy with brush, bushes, and trees quite close. So, lots of cover for birds to take shelter from storms or hawks.

There is a cherry tree outside an upstairs room window. One early morning there was a huge owl sitting on a limb in the tree. I watched it swoop down toward the feeder and catch a mouse. Then it came back onto the limb of the tree and promptly swallow the mouse whole.

I know mice simply die if something catches them and they cannot escape. I doubt they stay alive long enough to contemplate their fate.

Even though this is about birds, deer also visit the bird feeder in early evening when birds are usually bedding down for a long winters nap. Whatever is left in the feeder is often licked clean by deer.


Over the weekend the weather put down 8 or 10 inches of snow. Until it melts, which is supposed to happen during this week it will continue to keep a chill in the air.

KEEP WARM.