They Need a Shovel

And hands to use it.

In the Snowbirds post I mentioned that the Mourning Dove went hungry.

And noted the birds seemed confused in the Messy Garden post.

You know that feeling when you go to a favorite restaurant anticipating a nice meal and find it to be closed?

Yeah it was that. Only for birds.

Snow Birds

Friday morning we woke to a winter wonder land.

And the American Robins, looking for food, descended upon the Crabapple tree.

And they found it.

Which can't be said for the Mourning Dove.

Thoughts of Warmer Times

On day this past June I spotting this red patch in the Crabapple tree out my office window.

And work went on hold.

A young Northern Cardinal. 

And as I was watching a young Great-crested Flycatcher made an appearance.

A nice interlude between work tasks. 

And something to dream of these cold dark days.    

Snow Bird

Fast forward some months ...

I wonder if it is the same Northern Cardinal. 

And I wonder if it's dreaming of warmer times?

What a Difference a Week Makes

This morning I took this picture looking out the window over my work laptop:

(You might recall the image on the laptop.)

I took this picture last week, of Patty's nephew Stephen 'working from home':

This morning:

Last week:

❄️  🏝  ❄️  🏝  ❄️

Messy Garden

One of the benefits of gardening for wildlife is that the amount of yard work is significantly reduced. A trivial example is every square meter of garden is one less square meter to mow. 

Another maintenance job we no longer do is cut down the dead plants in the fall.

And this is one of the reasons why.

As you can see we had a bit of snow.

And the bird feeders were all snow covered. 

The birds were confused.

But there was still food available.

And this Chipping Sparrow was out my office window happily munching away at native grass seeds.

Which is another benefit of gardening for wildlife, benefiting the wildlife.

Hiding Place

As Winter approaches, and is now here, we shut down the filter system for the fish pond. Cutting off the water to the waterfall.

And this Song Sparrow promptly found a nice little hidey-hole. It spent quite a bit of time pecking at the "seaweed" on the rocks of the now still waterfall.

Polar Bird Club

Prior to the Fish Pond Waterfall being shut down for the winter, our resident Hermit Thrush decided to go for a dip.

Crazy. It's been in the 20's Fahrenheit most mornings. Yet this critter seemed to actually enjoy its splash about.

Crazy.

And That's How Plants Spread

I spotted this Hermit Thrush out my office window. And watched as it was singing.

Which I thought was kind of odd, singing this time of year.

Turns out it wasn't singing. It was puking.

I watched as it spit out red berry after red berry. 

WTF?

By the time I realized what was going and grabbed the camera it was over. I had seen it spit out six (!) berries, and it had been there 'singing' for a while before I looked through my binoculars and saw what was going on.

Alas, it was spitting on the rock path around the Fish Pond, so these will not sprout (or they'll be yanked up).

Daily Screech Owl Picture

Bonus two day edition!

Thursday the owl made an appearance, after not being seen for several days. 

And it was back again on Friday.

Very cool that it is still around.

🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉 🦉

This past Thursday was the DVOC annual banquet, held virtually for the second year in a row. And during the informal portion I mentioned about the owl and how it comes and goes. And at the meeting a member, Dr. Richard (Rob) Bierregaard,  who studied such things, explained that owls often have multiple roosts and they pick the one closest to where they finish hunting for the evening. So there must be good hunting around here.

Robins

Just off our deck, we have a Dogwood, which replaced a Service Berry (relocated) which replaced a Sweetgum (taken down), has been a favorite destination of American Robins this fall.

There are at least five in the image above. The image below shows why.

It's the berries.

Very yummy if you're a Robin it seems. The flock pretty much de-burried the tree.

Hail

I noted the cloud build up in the Thompson-Wright Revisited post. 

I'm happy to report we made it home before the assault commenced.

While at the Preserve I received an alert that severe thunderstorms were on the way.

And so they were.

The report from my weather station. Extreme.

The leaves in the image are about a half inch wide at their widest.

This went on for a good ten minutes.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

Crazy.

This was the most significant hail storm I've witnessed. And the wort I hope hits our place. I can't image what a storm with golf ball sized hail would be like.

Although the weather geek in me thinks it would be cool to see. As long as it was somewhere else, and not here.

Today's Owl Picture

It's just so cute!

Very cool that it was here again today.

🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉  🦉

I had mentioned in yesterday's post that I could see the owl box from my desk.

When I'm sitting at my desk facing my computer, this window is directly behind me. The scope is aimed at the owl box, which is the light colored rectangle below the black rectangle (which is a bat box; still waiting on bats to take up residence).

The view through the scope.

Gives me something to do when I should be working ...

A Snake in the rocks

As I've noted (and you are probably tired of hearing!) I get to work form home. And sitting at my desk I look out over the Fish Pond. And see things. Like this Eastern Garter Snake:

For a moment I though it was a leaf from one of the cattails. 

But soon enough I was out on the deck with a camera.

And I watched as it slithered down between these two stones.

I see you!

But not before I got a few headshots.