Mom says she posted one of my baby pictures yesterday. She says it was from my very first day home, when I was a tiny little thing. Yesterday was my gotcha day, I’ve lived here three whole years now!
I needed a nap once I came home, it was all so overwhelming.
I sure remember that first winter. There was so much snow! Of course I was a lot shorter than. My Auntie Beth and my folks made a snowman for me.
I thought snow was meant to be played in, not posed in. Sheesh.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to sit next to it. And I didn’t know about getting treats for posing yet. But eventually I sat…for an instant…so mom could get a picture.
What is this ‘sit’ of which you speak?
This year there’s a lot of snow too, and guess what? Mom made a snowman for me yesterday! She said we had to act fast, though, cause it was so warm the snowman’s nose and eyes kept falling out while I was posing!
Whatever, mom. The treats better be good, this snow is cold!
Now days I know all about the treat system so I had no problem sitting in the snow for a little while, knowing there was something good coming my way as soon as mom was done.
Last chance, mom, this snow=boy is a melting!
I’m a lot bigger now…but mom made this snowman bigger too. That’s ok, the sun has already shrunk that ole snowman down to size!
It’s been cold here. Really cold. Mornings are often close to 0F if not below. (-17C)
Perfectly puffed.
My backyard birds need extra food to survive, and they’re eating about 40 pounds of oiler seeds a week. Not to mention the big bag of peanuts in the shell, and the 10 pounds of shelled peanuts and the 20 pound of niger seed.
Startled by the lady with the camera.
I don’t think they travel far from my yard. When I’m out there filling the 6 feeders and one suet cage they chirp and flutter in nearby shrubs and trees. Maybe they’re discussing the menu. Probably more likely they’re wondering why I’m so slow.
Waiting impatiently for his favorite feeder to be filled.
Before I’m even back in the house they’re already swooping down to see what fresh treats I’ve left them. Sometimes I stand against the house, under the eves, and wait to see who shows up. I’ sure they know I’m there, but they can’t wait to grab a snack. If it’s not to windy and cold I’ll stand there awhile, enjoying the sound of their wings and their gentle chirping to each other.
A titmouse on alert, looking for the biggest peanut to snag.
During the winter months, when they’re so hungry and not busy raising a family, they seem to all get along. I have 5 pair of cardinals that will eat side by side on the railing where I spread seed in the worst weather, so that everyone can eat at the same time and no one has to wait.
Diving into supper.
In the spring and summer the cardinals will chase each other out of what they seem to feel is their own territory. You won’t find them eating together when they’re setting up households and struggling under new parent responsibilities.
The titmouse is the bravest of the birds. They’re usually the first to arrive when the feeders are newly filled. They’ll even come hop around the shrub nearest me as I pour seed on the railing. They are not afraid and they pick the biggest peanuts in shells every time. The peanuts are almost as big as their heads. They are very proud to get the prize seed before the big bluejays show up.
A puffed up shy junco waiting for the lady to go inside.
The chickadees are right behind the titmice, making a lot of noise to announce their arrival. They like a particular feeder and often flit back and forth between the shelter of the shrubs and the safe, caged, feeder.
A fat little goldfinch getting frustrated at the wait for lunch.
And I have a band of 7 bluejays that send a scout first who will announce when it’s safe. Then the rest of them swoop in, scaring, for a moment, the little birds. But soon they and the littles are all eating together.
Mourning doves taking an apres meal nap in the empty, heated, birdbath.
But if, suddenly, all the birds disappear it’s important to look around. Because sometimes the reason they’ve all hidden is this guy.
Standing on one foot while warming the other on a cold morning.
I’ve seen him attack a huge thorny barberry bush where the little birds like to hide, trying to get lunch. So far I haven’t seen him suceed at that. The little birds fly out and he’s tangled up in the thorns.
On the day I shot his image last week, it was close to zero out. He was, at first, standing on one foot and keeping the other warm up under his feathers. But he eventually put two feet firmly on the feeder hook and surveyed the yard for quite awhile before he flew off into the woods to look for an easier meal.
Ok, I’ll pose for the lady.
So there you go, some of my cold birds, most puffed up to conserve heat. This week it might get up into the 40s (4 C)…for one day anyway. I expect the birds will be sunbathing in relief.
I have a new laptop. Can you tell? I can, there’s a different feel, things are in different places, and I have to figure everything out.
What’s going on down there?
For example, I can’t find the cursor to put it where I want it to do any editing. Getting the images in is hard too. I can cut and paste previously typed stuff, but I can’t delete anything. So odds are you’re going to see the same sentence repeated because as I was inserting photos they were going in the wrong locations and I was trying to move text around them.
I’ll just ignore all that going on over there.
AND I have this backlog of photos to show you! Of course they’re mostly birds, shot in my own backyard because sometimes I look out there and I can’t not take their pictures. They are soooo cute. And beautiful too.
Hey lady! This is supposed to have water in it!
I have so many images of the same birds eating out of the same feeders. But each time I’m hopeful of getting that shot. You know the one. The one that makes you gasp or smile or both.
Hurry up and eat before some big bird comes along.
Sometimes I think I’m the only one feeding the birds in my neighborhood. They sit out there in the trees and shrubs and seem to wait. I’m hardly ever back in the house when they’re chowing down on the newly filled feeders. It’s cold right now and I’m filling six feeders 2x a day.
Does that make them spoiled?
Coming in for a landing.
So now I have all these images that I’m just now getting processed and you just need to see them. I have virtually nothing interesting to say to accompany the pictures.
No bird in this image…just beautiful frosty ice.
The birds have been so hungry they are getting used to me standing in the window with that big black lens pointed at them. I think they’ve decided the risk of me is worth it. Or maybe they recognize me from all my trips outside to fill their feeders.
Just leave all the peanuts in the shell to me and I’ll leave you guys alone.
I guess I could tell you that all of these were taken from across a room and through a window. Thank goodness we paid some nice gentlemen to wash the windows this fall.
There are five of us cardinal couples at the feeders daily.
Whenever I’ve tried to do the windows I end up with a streaky mess. The guys that come here twice a year do a beautiful job and I don’t think they’re very expensive given all the windows we have. We try to get them scheduled in the fall before the weather would make window cleaning really miserable.
We were pretty late this year but we made it. In addition winter started a little early. Does that mean it will end early this spring?
How many of us do you see?
Probably not. The winter this year seems more like winters I remember as a kid. Cold and snowy. We’ve had snow on the ground most of the time since Thanksgiving.
Eating upside down is good for your digestion. Really.
Anyway I think I’ve rambled enough to show you some of the images I got last month. I have a whole other set of images from the ice storm. That was pretty amazing.
Hi, I’m a titmouse and I fly really fast. And I eat a lot. Cause I’m such a crazy little bird.
I’d like to get all these photos from 2025 processed and filed away. Cause there are even more on my camera waiting to be downloaded from 2026!
Stay tuned.
Make room for incoming!
I’m just going to publish this and see what it looks like. I can’t get to the preview either, and I can’t delete some stuff, though I was able to delete a few sentences and then I lost that ability again. It’s going to make me crazy if this is the way things work!
But I’m glad to just get some photos out there. I’ll try to see if I can edit it tomorrow. Maybe the laptop (or WordPress) just needs a good night of sleep.
UPDATE: Apparently WordPress just needed a nap. The editing today went just fine. I’m not going to reread this post, I’m sure it reads somewhat clunky as I was working so hard last night just to insert an image or a paragraph. But I feel better that I can at least delete repetition. Hope you enjoy the birds!
This morning as I’ve been fixing the big dinner I’ve been watching my birds out the window and my Penny-girl napping inside and feeling grateful that I’m in my warm house looking out at a windy cold yard. It’s 32F here (0 C) and it feels, because of the wind, like 19F (-7.22C).
Nom, nom, nom.
I know the birds watch me as I fill the feeders every morning. Every day, before I’m back in the house they’re usually fluttering around picking at their favorite spot. This morning I somehow missed the goldfinch feeder and as I was walking to the shower later I noticed a big bunch of them all huddled around the very bottom of their feeder.
That’s all the seed there was left, just a bit at the very bottom.
I thought about going out and filling it after my shower. But they were hungry now. So I ran out without a coat and hurridely filled their feeder with thistle. Then I went inside to watch. No finches. I waited some more. One finch dropped down onto the beech tree, contemplated the feeder swaying in the wind.
“Come on little guy,” I murmered, “it’s right there for you, all fresh and nice.” He waivered and clung to his branch. “Come on sweetie, I whispered.” He tentatively flew to the top of the hook and looked around. Then he hopped down to the feeder and began to greedly eat. Suddenly finches came from all over, and swarmed the feeder.
I smiled.
Happy Thanksgiving little ones. Happy Thanksgiving.
And happy Thanksgiving to all of you. We hope you have a wonderful, warm and belly-filling day. Penny added that last bit about the belly. She has her priorities.
You probably saw on the news that there was a very large solar event this week. Tuesday night was supposed to be stunning, with the kind of aurora lights we saw a couple years ago. Of course Tuesday night I was in band and when I got home our skies were cloud covered.
I went to bed disappointed.
In the beginning there was just the faint pink and green.
Wednesday night the weather folks and those forecasting the aurora said it wouldn’t be as spectacular as Tuesday had been, but we had a good chance of seeing the lights. And this time the skies over my head were mostly clear!
And then a pillar showed up.
The aurora last night was fickle. I watched the numbers, and went outside numerous times, once it was dark, to check using my phone to take sample images, thinking maybe, just maybe there was a bit of a pink tinge to the northern sky.
The lights faded. Maybe that was it?
Eventually the numbers got better and I dragged my camera, tripod and a chair out to my backyard. I had considered driving somewhere that would provide me a clearer view of the horizon, but lots of stuff kept me home.
But almost right away another pillar of light sprang up.
I figured if I saw it, I saw it and if I didn’t, well, I’d see a lot of images online in the morning.
And then more pillars with more intense color.
Sitting in my own backyard took a lot of the stress out of finding a place with a clear view, worrying about other people, cars with headlights, or huffing deer.
The color began to dance.
It was actually pretty comfortable, even relaxing, out there. So comfortable I didn’t spend enough time focusing on the stars, so they’re not the pinpricks they’re supposed to be. And of course the trees, that were quite close to me, are out of focus. You can’t focus on both the stars and the trees!
Imagine what it looks like from that plane.
But the color, oh the color, was wonderful … if only for a few minutes. I think I spent 30 or 40 minutes out there before the color faded and the clouds blew in around 10 p.m. This morning I read that the lights came back out later in the night, but I was long asleep by then.
And then the light began to fade again.
I don’t have the most wonderous images. I didn’t have a view of the horizon so I couldn’t see much of the green dome below the red lights. My stars aren’t in focus. There’s no great foreground.
Clouds overtake the last of the pink light.
But for almost an hour I sat in the comfort of my yard, staring at the sky and smiling. If I hadn’t taken even one image I’d still have been happy that I went out into the night searching for Lady Aurora.
TIme to hang it up.
I hope some or all of you got a glimpse too. If not….squint at these images and imagine being out under the stars. I’m willing to share.
Using my phone, handheld.
One of the cool things about an event like this is that I know so many people are out there staring up at the sky too. We’re all looking at the same big sky, and for one or two nights the rest of the crazy world falls away. I never feel alone when I’m out under the stars and I usually don’t even feel the cold until I’m back inside. It’s an amazing experience.
Another phone shot testing the skies. It was there!
All these images are pretty much the way they came out of the camera (or phone). I cropped a few, tried to clean up the fuzziness of a couple others. But mostly they’re the way they looked in the camera. You couldn’t see any of this with your naked eye.
If you ever get the opportunity, go out and watch the aurora. Take your phone or camera with you, it probably will be the only way you’ll see it. But it’s worth the adventure.
I was collecting seeds from my zinnias this week, cutting spent heads, tossing them into a paper bag to dry. Slowly processing the loss of summer. Preparing for our long winter.
And then a bit of light, there at my feet, caught my eye.
The nasturium leaves, round and beautiful on their own even before the orange and yellow blossoms peek out, were glowing in the last of the day’s sun.
I stood still and thought how much I wanted to hold onto this moment, this bit of sunlight, these bright colors. How I wanted time to slow down even as, for me, it’s moving faster and faster.
I stood there watching the light on the leaves and blossoms for a few moments and then I did what every photographer does. I ran to the house for a camera.
And that’s why I take so many photographs. It’s to slow time, to help remember the thoughts and feelings of a specific moment. So that later on, when winter is getting old and we haven’t seen the sun in days, I can look at this image and remember the heat on my shoulders and the warmth in my soul.
When I see the first junco my heart drops but it also fills. Which seems a thought at odds with itself, doesn’t it?
Dark eyed juncos are only here for the winter months. And they are the first harbingers of winter, so my heart drops. But they are also adorable little round birds, and they will hop around under the feeders all winter, delighting us with their antics. So my heart fills that they’ve chosen my yard again.
No matter that the red winged blackbirds, the sign of spring and summer, are still here eating me out of house and black oiler seed before their trips south. No matter that we had temps approaching 75 degrees F yesterday (23.33 C) and will most likely again today.
Winter is on the way. Proof, a junco arrived today. Time to get out the winter coats, find the snow shovel, and check the antifreeze in the cars.
Welcome Mr. (or Ms.) Junco. I’m glad to see you again, but did you have to arrive so early?
PS: The pictures aren’t in focus. I was a long way away, and this little one popped up on the driveway, almost blending in with the asphalt. Still, I can’t fool myself into thinking it’s a sparrow. Can you?
Change Is Hard 