Monday, January 18, 2010

Snowing

Our view this morning,
after eight inches of fresh snow and counting


Goldfinches mob the Nyjer seed feeder, chickadees and titmice dart in and out to snatch black oil sunflower seeds, and a tree sparrow (the first of the season) set up camp on the lower rung of the sunflower seed tube feeder. Juncos help themselves to sunflower seeds tossed to the ground by other birds, sharing the space with three mourning doves.

The tree sparrow is distinctive with its rufous crown and eye-line and small dark spot on its breast. For every seed that the sparrow cracks and eats, it spills another ten on the ground. It is either a slob or quite picky about which seeds are good to eat. Meanwhile, the goldfinches are eating machines, efficiently consuming every nyjer seed.

The fresh snow will provide great animal tracking. We will be out tomorrow at first light to see who wandered through our yard in the night.

1 comment:

  1. beautiful pictures. Our snow in Upstate NY is looking a little dingy as of today's warm spell. So much more bearable when it looks like this!

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