7:06 a.m. 16 degrees, wind NW 4 mph. Sky: the hushed world of a small-flake snowstorm, twelve-inches and falling. Visibility, less than two hundred yards. Christmas-card landscape, streaked in white—far-off trees vague allusions, hillsides rendered by a seductive and suggestive screen of snow. Nearby trees: white outlines of dark limbs. Here and there, puffs of snow slide off pine boughs, the morning's cold breath. Permanent streams: snow on ice muffles sound, trace gurgles. Wetlands: almost a white-out. Reeds merge into a beige-white mat. Across the marsh, a mere hint of evergreens. Inside the pines and spruce, a hidden owl, head cocked, listens for red-backed voles. Outside, the red-tailed hawk seems to have moved south (hopefully, beyond the storm path) . . . deaf to footfalls, tough for a hawk to hunt rodents under deep snow. Pond: an expanse of undisturbed white.
Red squirrel bounds across the unplowed road. Vulnerable until it reaches a tree. Old deer and coyote tracks fill in. The second morning in succession, no red-breasted nuthatches in the woods. No cars on the road (a snow lockdown). White-breasted walking down white ash, white on white through a screen of white. Chickadee in the alders. The significance of a tiny bird, unperturbed by falling snow. Alone on the edge of the marsh . . . effervescent as ever.
At the feeders: hairy and downy on opposite sides of the suet. The belligerence of jays, crests erect, rude but beautiful. A mob of eleven, a rowdy gathering in the front yard. Acorns unavailable under deep snow. Chase each other off perches. Cherry and ash limbs. Off the ground below the sunflower feeders. Off the suet cage. Off pines limbs, which release descending whiffs of snow. Patiently, three chickadees, two titmice, and one red-breasted nuthatch take a turn on the feeders. Sedate. Tolerant. Well-mannered. Everything blue jays aren't . . . but a world without jays would be a dull world indeed.
Thanks, Ted! I enjoy these so much!
Birds certainly can teach us that "it takes all kinds" to make up a community. I'm always leery of human designations of "good" or "bad" animals or plants, so thanks for valuing the blue jay! The starling has a bad reputation, but I've watched the murmuration of starlings in complete awe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4f_1_r80RY