In My Backyard | Winter ’24-’25
You can’t get too much winter in the winter. — Robert Frost
Amen, Mr. Frost. Amen!
It was the most glorious winter season that I can remember in a long time. We had snow that actually stayed on the ground for more than a day or two. It was perfectly cold! Sweater weather! Hat and mittens weather! Bundle up weather that even included the boon of many sunny days!
It was also a stellar season for wildlife watching!
Thanks to the Blink cameras (not an affiliate link) that Steve put up, I can see that the deer are somewhat regular “checkers” to see if the birds might have left anything in the feeders (they don’t!) Apparently, the deer kept hoping that one time they’d find a seed or two… but they were never lucky. Thanks to those cameras, I could see that we also had some raccoon visitors and a possum also ambled through my yard! And one neighborhood cat strolls through with some regularity in the early hours as well… I am just glad I don’t see him during the day when the birds are active!
All those visitors aside, it’s the birds who have won the season!
Beginning with the afternoon in February that a half a dozen crows stopped by to “play” in the newly fallen snow. They walked all over the back yard delighting in the day… but things really kicked off when they began rolling around in the snow! They seemed to egg each other on… it was the most spectacular thing. I stood in my kitchen watching them… amazed that I happened to be there to see their antics! I felt like I was a spectator of something almost miraculous.
I typically put a spot of seed out in the morning… and then I have to pay attention to shag the starlings away or they’d eat every bit in short order. But one late February morning the most curious thing happened… a pair of Northern Mockingbirds have been hanging around and Mr. Mockingbird was having none of that starling nonsense! Mr. Mockingbird is an expert Starling Shagger! He keeps them out of all the feeders so his missus can have an undisturbed brekkie! Mr. Mockingbird has now taken my job of keeping those darned starlings away – at least until he and his missus have had their fill!
I have also been noting birds “pairing up” as winter winds down… House Finches, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, and Red-bellied, Downy, and Hairy Woodpeckers have all paired up. And on an early March weekend, I saw a pair of Pileated Woodpecker’s fly over chattering away!
Perhaps the most amazing thing of all happened with the time change – not that I think this is tied at all to the time change… it’s that I am back getting up well before the sunrises! Anyways, in the pre-dawn darkness there is a curious thing that happens in my neighborhood as the Ides of March rolled around… in the darkness the robins have an early morning “chatter” session. Calling from one to another circling around my neighborhood as they chatter before any other birds wake. It is the most delightful soundtrack as Frankie and I meander along in the darkness. I wonder what they are talking about as they call around to each other… oh to be a robin interpreter! Ha! There is a similar chatter session after the sun has set at night, but it is no where near as boisterous as the early morning call session!
As winter moved along, I was delighted by some of the rituals that are bellwether’s of the season… the sprouting of the snowdrops, which happened this season as February turned to March and the blooming of those snowdrops on March 4th. All it took was a fleeting bit of warmer weather and they were up and ready to great the day! (Good thing too, that warm weather woke some little bee friends and those snowdrops were happy to provide them with a bit of sustenance!) The daffodils, alliums, and tulips have also poked up some shoots as well. There is hope in those tendrils… hope that exists despite a whole ration of shite flowing into our lives daily! And the daffodils, as if on cue, began blooming the day before the spring equinox! I now have a lovely jar of them on my desk. The smell is intoxicating!
When I started being a backyard observer in earnest a year ago I did not imagine I’d see much in my very suburban yard… silly me! And as I began my second year of backyard observering… I thought I’d see much the same as I had the year before. Little did I know the wonders I would experience this winter… all because I turned my focus to my little backyard. I began this journey thanks to one incredible and most amazing Margaret Renkl — thank you for putting my feet on this path!
What about you? Did you have any highlights this winter?
See you all back here on Monday! Have a great weekend!
