I wake up every morning and stand at the kitchen sink to see which birds are at the bird feeders! Those poor brave birdie souls weather some of the worst snow storms I've ever seen! They perch on the freezing little metal poles poked through the thistle seed feeder while the wind blows the darn thing around like a windsock. When it's too windy, they hide in the berry bush in front of our kitchen sink window until it clears up a bit.
I say the weather in Rochester is manic. One day, it's 75F (23C) with full sun, the next day, it's 45F (7C) and pouring rain. Winters are no exception! There were a few weeks through November and December which were around the 60's and 70's, with only a few days that dropped below the 40's. We barely had any snow left on the ground when Christmas rolled around - and in fact, on Christmas day, it was pouring rain! We had to drive over to Lauren's house, because walking through the wooded area between our houses with gifts and platters of food was too hazardous. We waited one week for this massive storm we kept hearing about to hit us, but nothing! Well, we're sure in it now! Geeeez. We got about three feet, it just looks like less, because we're on top of a hill and the snow keeps getting blown off parts of it.
Lo and behold...my giant kitty snow sculpture! Cars kept driving by to stare at me as I made it.
My husband poked his head out to check on me, because I hadn't come in for a long time. I originally set out to recover one of our Zen Cat cups that our father bought for us last Christmas. I guess a construction worker left it outside this summer, and I hadn't been out to see it till now. Well, I got distracted with shoveling my way through snow, because it's up to my knees. I saw how much snow there was in the pile I'd made and decided to make a snow kitty. I'm just ADHD like that. I really felt motivated to be outside and playing around in the snow today!
By the time I was finished, I couldn't feel my body from the waist down, so I thawed out a little inside.
When I could feel my legs again, I went back out and shoveled my way to the birdfeeders. Unfortunately, the design of two of my lantern-style feeders, while gorgeous, have a lot of ventilation holes for rain and snow to get into. Snow was packed into the feeders, so I took them down along with the thistle seed feeder, and brought them inside the garage. I refilled the thistle seed feeder and hung it up right away, because the goldfinches love and adore it. Every perch is occupied when it's breakfast time, it's just amazing! We have a good flock of goldfinches and house finches! I unscrewed everything, took the lids off, scooped the snow out, filled the feeders up, then I took plastic grocery bags and covered up the areas the snow was being blown in before putting everything back together. After trimming off the excess bag, I hung the feeders back up again.
I was really excited to put my brand new Sky Cafe feeder out! (http://www.thenaturesbarn.com/images/feeders%20sky%20cafe.jpg) My husband took me out yesterday to the bird house store on Monroe, and we wound up coming home with a bunch of goodies. I picked up a couple small books on bird feeding, nesting, and cardinals, as well as a pole stand to put the Sky Cafe atop, 5 lbs of special chickadee food, cardinal-shaped cookie cutters, a nesting box with a chickadee-sized portal adjustment (it was a box for nuthatches, so the opening was a little too big), and some tasty suet. Mmmm, suet. It's a really great store, and the people were all very helpful and friendly! They even have a shop kitty, which is something I love! He's not the friendliest cat in the world, but he does come over to say hello, at least.
Peek around the corner, and what do I see?
It's Mr. Cardinal!!! He's scoping out the new feeder, which is very different looking...but I know he sees all that tasty, delicious birdseed in there! It's actually the chickadee food, but there are tons of black sunflower seeds, peanuts, sunflower chips, and other delicious, tasty things I'm sure he'll enjoy. I have something for everyone there - chickadee mix in the Sky Cafe, generic songbird mix in the lantern feeder, and a thistle seed feeder for the goldfinches!
During the summer, Lauren also gave me a suet feeder with a squirrel baffle and a shepherd's hook, which I had lain on the ground to install when I had time. Well, I never quite had time to set it up, so it was buried under all the snow. Luckily for me, I'm usually pretty good at remembering where things are, so I was able to dig my way through the thigh-high snow to the approximate area I thought the suet feeders might be. Imagine my joy and delight when I uncovered the suet cage! I also retrieved the Zen Kitty cup while I was out there. With a fresh batch of peanut suet loaded in, I stuck it into the bushes in front of the kitchen sink (and got snow down both my boots, arg.
I would like to get a heated bird bath next, though I'm not sure we have an outlet outside the house close to the feeders.
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Chirp!