An early song

There was no sun this morning. A little wet, sloppy snow had fallen last night. Hungry birds were waiting at every feeder and swarmed on the food before I'd walked very far away. When I looked back at the ground feeder, the hungry deer was already licking up the corn. When I put some bread out, the hungry crows were calling to each other to come get it.

Then I heard a sweet singing from over my head. I looked up. In the gray morning light I couldn't see what sort of a bird this was. But when he sang, I knew right away. If you look at the picture and click here, you can see and hear what I saw and heard.

It's Song Sparrow, of course, being hopeful for Spring.

The Starlings arrive

This morning I heard some muttering and whistling up in the trees. It sounded like insults and taunts.

There was a little gang of bullies gathering.

They are not very brave but there are a LOT of them. They always stick to their gang.

They have just chased away the Mockingbird and are busily eating up all the oat cakes I put out this morning.

From a distance they look like black lumps, but if you get close you can see the little white spots on them. You can see why they are called Starlings.

The early bloom

A week or so ago I noticed something purple out in the grass. Was it....? I went closer. It was! The first crocus was blooming!

Almost right away it got covered with snow. All I could see was a sort of purple smudge in the snow.

Now the snow is melting, and here are some little flowers peeking out. They've closed up but you can still see the purple.

So here's a new Spring saying: instead of "The Early Bird gets the Worm", it's "The Early Bloom gets the Snow."

Cold baths

Would you take a bath in this icy cold water?Brrrrrr...I don't think so!
Who would do that?

Bluejay would.
Here he goes, splashing all over!
Cardinal would. In fact Cardinal just sat for a while by the ice and let the spray give him a shower.

How do they stand this cold water!

The moon's eclipse

I was excited about seeing the moon's eclipse on Wednesday night. It was a perfect clear sky when the full moon came up.

The earth's shadow began to move across the moon. We all crowded around the window to look.

Time passed. Some people went to sleep, but I stayed up. I wanted to see what happened when the moon was completely covered.

What happened was that it began to glow a strange gold-orange color.

By this time the moon was so high in the sky that I had to go outside to see it. I put on two pairs of pants, a jacket under my coat, two scarves, a wool hat, wooly gloves, and my big insulated rubber boots. It was 12 degrees F out.

The snow crunched under my feet. I heard a dog bark, far away. A pickup truck went by trailing a thumping sound behind it. When it was gone everything was very very quiet. I felt like the only warm thing in the world.

The Big Dipper hung upended in the North. Orion stood over the house. The stars were sparkly bright. I looked at the moon with my binoculars. It was a huge red-orange ball. I forgot about how cold and late it was and just stared for a long time.

Socks in the snow

"Come on!" says Socks. "What are you waiting for? Let's go! " It doesn't matter that the snow nearly covers her legs.

She bounds through the snow like a bunny.

She wonders why I dawdle filling the bird feeders.

There are things to be sniffed! Snow to be licked!

She wonders if I just don't know how to have fun.

Seeing things

The wind was blowing hard the other day.
Clouds were flying across the sky.
They kept changing and making pictures.
Can you see the rooster crowing in this cloud picture?


The ice was melting. It didn't change as quickly as the clouds, but it also made pictures. This looks like Elasmosaurus to me. I thought Elasmosaurus was a dinosaur until I read about it on this web site: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/Elasmosaurus.shtml.

Letter from Daisy and the Daisy-picker.

Dear Oldwren, Lizard, and Hoosierkitty,

Last weekend we went to Madagascar, Switzerland and thought of you! Madagascar, Switzerland?! How can this be?? We visited the gigantic and excellent tropical rainforest enclosure at the Zurich Zoo!
Lizard, we saw some of your relatives - chameleons. They had REALLY big tongues and were eating crickets.

The Daisy-picker and his tiger looked through binoculars from a hut in the forest. Daisy-picker learned that he had to keep his tiger quiet so that the other wildlife wouldn't get scared and hide.

Daisy identified these "buck-bucks" in the water.

And Herr Professor Doktor Hausfrau found a big bat hanging upside down in the tree! Good observation skills!

Daisy became very excited about these "meows", and wanted to tell Hoosierkitty all about them, but her older brother explained that they are actually Lemurs. He knows, because he has seen the movie "Madagascar" at least 17 times.

Switzerland was very cold that day - but once we were within Madagascar, it was a balmy 80 degrees F and we enjoyed our break from the winter.

A Daisy in the wild.

For some reason, Daisy-picker was very excited to see the frogs - and they came in almost every color of the rainbow! Oldwren, do you like frogs? Do you have any idea why my children seem to have developed a particular fondness for frogs?

We hope one day you all can visit Madagascar, Switzerland with us!

With Love, Daisy, Daisy-picker, Dr Hausfrau, and Herr Professor Doktor Hausfrau

Not counted

You Deer don't understand that I'm just counting birds this weekend.

It doesn't matter if you come to the bird feeder. If you're not a bird I'm not counting you!

More? How many Deer can there be in this herd? One, two, three....seven Deer! Okay, I counted you.

Count the Birds

Today is the day when people all over the country are counting the birds in their yards. It's called "The Great Backyard Bird Count". You can see on this site all the places on the map where people have counted birds.


Some birds are easy to see and count, like the Bluejay and the Cardinal.

Some are hard to see, like the Finch.

I usually count the birds at the feeders. You are supposed to count how many of each type of bird you see.

This is difficult, because they keep flying away!

A little ice

One morning when I went out it was icing. Not raining, not snowing, not sleeting - just icing. It was like a mist of ice. It covered the branches with a sleek invisible shield. It covered the dry winter grass too and when I stepped on it I slid almost all the way down the hill.
A Cardinal didn't see the ice and tried to land on the thick branch by the window. He looked suprised as he slid down its slippery side. Then he flew up to a smaller branch and tried to look as if nothing had happened.

Now the clouds are beginning to let the sun shine a little. The ice is melting. It is still so cold that it doesn't melt all at once. It runs down and freezes again and melts again and freezes again and makes these icicles.
Can you see the drops of water at the pointy ends of the icicles?

Mourning Doves

Up in the pine tree on Valentine's day:

He says, "Come a little closer." She says, "Coooo-roooo."

He says, "What lovely spots you have." She says, "Cooo-roooo".
He says, "I like your pink feet." She says, "Coooo-roooo."

He says, "I love the way you talk."

She says......."coooooooooooo-rooooooooo."

Lizard Finds Some Shelter

Dear Wren,

It's raining here today, but it doesn't really bother me. I can easily fit under a leaf or in a small crevice, and to be honest, that's where I've been spending most of my time lately anyway. I probably won't get out much until it starts getting hot outside.
Other animals aren't so lucky. This wet and bedraggled squirrel has been outside looking for food all afternoon.

I've seen him hiding in the hollow part of this tree, but he wasn't there today.

Sometimes he sits high up in the tree, where the leaves and branches give him some shelter from the rain, but he wasn't there today either.

He sat in the rain nibbling on seeds for a long time, and then I saw him jump up on the fence. He shook himself like a dog, ran his front paws over his face a few times, and then went right back to his rainy lunch.

What do you do when it rains?

Love,

Lizard

Tuesday

Outside it is: Inside it is:
Guess where I am?

Why there are so many Cattails

Did you ever put a marshmallow on a stick and then put it over a fire? Do you know how the marshmallow swells up and sometimes gets funny bumps on its sides and sometimes melts all down the stick? Sometimes it catches fire and flames burst up around it.

I keep thinking about marshmallows when I look at what's happening to the cattails now. You know how they are nice and smooth on the top of their stem, just like a long skinny brown marshmallow on a stick. Now some of them are swelling up and getting funny bumps on their sides.
When they have lots of bumps they look like marshmallows that have been over the fire too long.
And then the wind blows and they burst open, just like the marshmallow bursts into flame. Only instead of fire, fluff comes out. The wind blows the fluff everywhere.
It's soft and light and feathery. It floats around the pond.

If you pick a cattail that is all bumpy and swollen, you can wave it around and fill the air with flying fluff.