MUSKRAT HOLE IN THE ICE? DEER AT THE BIRD BATH

Got slowed down this AM by watching four deer come up to the house to feed on our Yew bush.  Our yews are so ragged, we are appreciative for all the help trimming them!  

I knew we got the bird bath heater for a reason!

It was fun to see them, as the deer below were only about 5 feet from me! They stayed for about 15 minutes and then moved on.  -4º outside this AM, so they are welcome to whatever sustenance they can get from the yews.

 

 

On a different note, there has been a hole in the ice on the pond and I have wondered if it is a muskrat hole.  Haven't seen any brown furry critters there, but it seems logical.  Then Linda was reading H.D. Thoreau: A Writer's Journal, edited by Laurence Stapleton, and ran across the following:

"I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.  He is a man wilder than Ray or Melvin.  While I am looking at him, I am thinking what he is thinking of me. [I felt that way this morning as the deer was looking in the window at me!]  He is a different sort of a man, that is all.  He would dive when I went nearer, then reappear again, and had kept open a place five or six feet square so that it had not frozen, by swimming about in it.  Then he would sit on the edge of the ice and busy himself about something.  I could not see whether it was a clam or not.  What a cold-blooded fellow!  thoughts (sic) at a low temperature, sitting perfectly still so long on ice covered with water, mumbling a cold, wet clam in its shell.  What safe, low, moderate thoughts it must have!  It does not get on to stilts.  The generations of muskrats do not fail. They are not preserved by the legislature of Massachusetts."  ~Henry David Thoreau, Novemeber 25, 1846.

I wonder what Thoreau was thinking when he said, "What safe, low, moderate thoughts he must have".  What are low thoughts?  Moderate thoughts?  I wouldn't think he'd feel safe on the ice...  Perhaps HDT was even then comparing him to politicians? "It does not get on to stilts."  Interesting that so much of HDT's paragraph fits with today.  Somethings don't change, and unfortunately, it is not just nature!

A muskrat hole in the ice?

CHILLY WINTER, BUT SIGNS OF SPRING

Sure has been a chilly winter!  The birds are snarfing the food; I'm glad I got a birdbath heater for them this year, so at least they can have some water without having use up their internal warmth melting snow. 

-7º at 7:45 this morning!

The deer have been around a lot, too.  Particularly around the bird feeder with the corn and also munching on our Yew bushes (they need trimming anyway...).  After the little dusting of snow a couple days ago, there were many tracks in our yard and on the road -- looked like a party had been happening in our yard!  Canine tracks (fox, I think) came out from the hollow across the street and crossed with the deer tracks - two of each, is my guess; I'd like to know more about tracking.  The other critters are sure acting like spring is coming; it was downright cacophonous in our yard Monday night!  Driving the local dogs crazy. Is this the time the fox kits are being born?

Meanwhile, I'm toasty with a fire in the fireplace, getting stuff done and communing with the Carolina Wren who pays a visit outside my window almost every day.  Hope everyone else is finding warmth and something to smile about on these chilly mornings!  Leave a comment... what makes you smile when you step outside?

11º BELOW ZERO AND SNOW BUNTINGS

Yes, the porch thermometer read -11 Saturday (Jan 4) morning when I took Blake for his morning walk.  Chilly!  And invigorating!!  Nice to have some real winter.  I know, I know, I am probably in the minority here, but I love the way the snow crunches and the brisk feel when it is truly cold.  Just bundle up and don't stay out too long and it is great!  Not so good for our homeless, though...  Hopefully, they all found someplace to get in out of the cold.

And Sunday, Snow Buntings!  Two of them.  It is a life bird for Linda & I.  I took Blake to Haskell Field to do some cross-country skiing (I skied; Blake ran).  Got out of the car and was greeted by two birds doing the most gorgeous aerial patterns!  No binoculars (sigh), but I could tell I'd never seen these birds before.  Skiing would have to wait!  I've never seen the Snows before, but "Snow Bunting" was the first thing that came to my mind.  Actually, that isn't true - the Killdeer was the first bird that came to mind because of the way they ran around and the breastband, but I quickly realized it wasn't Killdeer.  Snow Buntings?  No, couldn't be.  I've never seen them here.  Hmm... my phone apps say they winter here.  The picture of winter adults kinda looks like these birds.  Maybe.  But there are no pictures of flying birds so I can see the underside of the wings; these guys had gorgeous white wings with large black tipping.

They hung around for a long time, flitting from one place to another and back again.  Seemed to be eating from the bare spots where there was some grass, seeds or gravel, and sometimes on the snowbanks where there was gravel pushed up with the snow.  I watched for 10 or 15 minutes then decided to ski.  Out on the snow I realized that these guys acted like they would be staying around here, so I called Linda to see if she wanted to come down with the binoculars and added, "Bring the new Crossley; it will have under wing pictures!" (A Christmas present!).  Blake and I continued our skiing/running until she arrived.  Perfect snow for him - soft, but not too deep.  He was so happy to finally be out running that if the snow hadn't been getting sticky, I think he could have easily pulled me!

Linda showed up maybe a half hour after I had first arrived and we easily found the birds again.  Yup.  Snows.  COOL!!!  After we watched for a while, I went home and got my camera and came back.  The pix is a bit grainy cuz it was getting dark and I had to shoot ISO 1600 with a longish lens.  According to the books, the Snows tend to stay in one place, so maybe I can go back and get better pictures later this week.  

If you go looking for them, go into the parking lot off Fairbank Road and go strIGHT back to the fields, staying on the Hudson Road side of the lots.  If you stand facing the main fields, Hudson on your left and the playground on your right, they were flitting around in the corner of the parking lot where the trash receptacles are.  They were on the snow banks, in the gravel/grass, sometimes near the dog bag area and sometimes on the side of the parking lot, opposite the playground.  Watch for very light-winged birds flitting in the air and running on the ground.  When they eat, they are hard to see - they blend right in.  Let me know if you see them, meanwhile, enjoy the cold and snow.  (Oh... it is raining.  ICK!)

Our Pileated Woodpecker is still here and active.  :-)

IT'S COLD OUT THERE!

Ah, it has warmed up to 0 degrees from the -1 on the porch earlier this AM.  The birds are hungry.  I just went out to put some meal worms in the feeder (the bluebirds tend to be a little bit later than the others, so I've started putting the meal worms out later rather than early to be snarfed up by the other birds) and the flocks were chirping in the trees all around me - the nuthatches were most obvious to my ears.  "Hurry up!  Hurry up!"

After I finished putting out the mealworms and some stale cashew butter, I stood back near the corner of the house, but only about 20 feet from the feeder, and the birds zoomed in, totally ignoring me!  The bluebirds came in right over my shoulder!  It is cold and they are hungry!

We have a whole flock of goldfinch - maybe even 50!  I can't count them because there are usually a bunch in the trees while the others are on the ground or the feeders. 19 mourning doves yesterday; they were easy to count.  Lots of juncos, but not as many as there are goldfinch!  And, I regularly see 3 male and 2 female bluebirds.  Nobody on the feeders or the ground right now!  I wonder where the hawk is...