Outside everywhere is still snow covered, but now it has frozen solid, just to add to the discomfort of our wild neighbors.
Somehow the bottom of the squirrel-proof peanut holder has disappeared so I am again feeding tits from the bird table, which means the pigeons, jays and squirrels eat far more than the little tits ever manage to.
I watched two blackbirds tussling over food on the bird table. One of them was lightly brushed with frost and must have had a very cold perch during the night. I wondered at birds’ metabolism and thought how, if that were us, we would likely have succumbed to hypothermia and maybe died, but here was the black, yellow-billed chap, perky as ever and fighting for his rights amongst the food.
It is very cold outside – the sun rises moon-white each morning into a silvery sky. Yesterday’s sunset was surprisingly red, so perhaps today the sun will shine and gently warm some of the creatures living outside during this freezing spell of weather.
It is 9am. The thin white sunlight brightens the snow on the lawn and in the fields, and deepens the shadows. A pair of squirrels is busy collecting food from the bird table and storing it in the woodpile. A jay sitting in the lower branches of the birch tree watches them. As yet he has made no attempt to sabotage their winter store. My guess is that he is the jay who has already been eating food straight from the bird table and is now marking where his next meal will come from.
A squirrel is sitting fatly – his fur all puffed out – on the bird table. He has eaten his fill, stored much here and there, and is obviously not much interested in the rest of the food other than to protect it from the birds with a view to keeping it for himself.
A skein of Canada geese just flew noisily above the garden. I love the way their calls announce their coming, making it possible to fully enjoy the sight of their overhead flight formation.
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