Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 341
Winter has gotten its grip on the north country early this year giving skiers both downhill and cross country a chance to get out on the slopes and trails and enjoy the white stuff that keeps falling. The snowmobilers even had a full week of fun on the area trails and the snow just kept coming. I know because my snowblower has been up and down the driveway many times so far. My brother-in-law Bob, who I mentioned late last winter, has his unmanned snow blower in action on his driveway in Clifton Park and he even gets on-lookers watching the action from the highway out front. After practicing last year, he has the machine programmed to do its own thing and it will go back to be recharged when the battery is low all by itself. My sister Wendy says it is quite a sight to see people taking photos of the snowblower in action. I bet they wish they had one.
As I laid in bed this morning before daylight, I watched the waning super cold moon drift across the sky outside my window. The small crescent left was still very bright, but it faded into the clouds that moved in from the west not to be seen again as daylight brightens the morning sky. With those clouds, I thought for sure it would be snowing when it became light enough to see but it wasn’t. It was super quiet and I could hear the trees snapping and popping as the -10 degree temperature made the woods outback talk.
The Chickadees were the first birds to hit the feeders as it became light, then a couple Slate Colored Juncos showed up who had been here in a couple of weeks. Then a new bird, an American Tree Sparrow, joined them to pick seed off the ground. A small buck appeared coming off the ski trail and just wandered through the bird feeding area nonstop. He headed over to the crab apple tree to see if little apples had fallen overnight. The Blue Jays then started to appear; I had twenty that could count at the same time this morning. Soon after, the Evening Grosbeaks started just falling out of the sky and trees mobbing both seed feeders and the ground below eating everything in sight. I counted over one hundred yesterday morning, and they were all back today if not more. As soon as I got up, I put on some warmer clothes and went out to fill all the feeders. The birds weren’t far away cheering me on or calling in reinforcements, and some were on the feeders before I got back into the house. In less than an hour with that many birds, it was time to refill the feeders again. Tractor Supply is happy to see me when I come in and buy my weekly cart full of bird seed.
My son, Jason, texted me this morning to say he had fifteen to twenty male Northern Cardinals at his feeder this morning. So, he had red birds in his woods, and I have yellow and black birds plus blue and white ones in my woods.
My grandson Jake and I put up parachute cord protection on my two big four and five pane windows on the feeder side of the house to stop window hits from the birds. Then we rigged up two more sets for the two big double windows on each side of the house where I have had hits in the past. So far so good and it used almost all the four hundred feet of parachute cord on the roll I bought. The parachute cords are spaced four inches apart which puts four on each window from top to bottom.
Looks like a warming trend coming at the end of the week is an enjoyable time for fruit cake making, but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: Crescent Moon
