February Birds and More

Well, I'll start with the more.  They turned a bank into a hamburger joint nearby.  We're still only doing take-out but it was nice to try.  They have good burgers and fries, and currently a choice between a root beer float and creamsicle float.  It sure was orangey.

When I went to water the fairy garden a couple of days after our grandson had visited, I noticed that he had added the tiny telephone he found with some old toys.  I guess he thought the fairy would be able to call someone.  No facetime though.

Looking up through the kitchen skylight when some of the snow started to melt it looked like a snow and sky geode.

And looking down to follow the red arrows when we went to get our first vaccine.  

And now the birds.  A female cardinal.  They are not as brilliant as the males but beautiful in their own right.

A female bluebird on the suet cake.

And a woodpecker.

The male bluebird.

And a northern flicker whilst the bluebird waits his turn again.

The mail cardinal in the snow with an unidentified bird butt.  (You wouldn't believe the number of pictures of bird butts I inadvertently get because they move so fast.)

We have well over a foot of snow blanketing the yard though it is compacting as it melts.  The temps rose to the 40's today and all morning you could hear the icicles breaking off the gutters and the frozen ice inside rattling down the leaders.  We didn't get the ice storm as predicted and we're going to have to see if the snow they are calling for Thursday into Friday will come about.  We had little to no snow last winter and there were so many bugs last summer because the ground didn't freeze.  Hopefully all this snow, besides providing nitrogen for all the bulbs and plants, will freeze more insects and we'll have a less buggy summer to look forward to.  It's good to remember that there are benefits to snow.