7:07 a.m. (sunrise one minute earlier than yesterday). 3 degrees, wind NW 4 mph (whenever I blink, my eyes water). Sky: white and emerging blue, a suggestion of flurries, a promise of sunshine. Permanent streams: mink, down the lower streambed yesterday, threaded the upper today. Twenty-four hours among the reeds. Left beneath the silver light of the moon, accompanied by shadow—fresh prints, toes distinctive. Under the road, over jumbled rocks and panes of ice, beyond the hemlock wall, still dark. Flexible as a snake, hot blood coursing. Dark brown fur, the envy of the nineteen-sixties. I ran my fingers through my mother's coat a thousand times, soft, thick, lustrous, earthy brown. Looks better on a mink. Wetlands: across the marsh, dark teal to nearly black, many shades of worn-out green. From inside the brooding forest, a proclamation. Two drum rolls, well-spaced and resonant—a riveting pileated. No one answers. Pond: a plowed rink takes shape. Christmas overtones . . . the red wooden frame of a hockey goal joins the green bench.
Front-yard assemblage: five hairy woodpeckers, nine doves, five jays, and who knows how many chickadees. Downy woodpecker, a captive audience, waits in cherry for a chance at a sunflower seed. Or a piece of kidney suet. Hairy woodpeckers, in charge, commandeer feeding stations.
An ecological treadmill under the weight of an unflagging Arctic airmass. Then, sunlight breaks through—opportunity unfurls. Nuthatches call. Downy gets a chance at the suet cage. Twelve turkeys assemble in the back yard, scratch up acorns. Heat on my cheeks, my outlook thaws.
Even with arctic wind chill - sun noticeably higher and dare I say "warmer" Bird activity ticking up - as you say drumming woodpeckers. I helped one chickadee tune-up its 2-note song in a short duet-exchange this morning and made me smile... A red-bellied woodpecker arrives at feeders and makes a lot of noise. Squirrels feasting on sunflower seeds and some tentative chases barber pole fashion around maples... My son, Cody hanging the steel support wire for a new spur off an existing maple mainline up a brook to access about 60 more taps on 5 laterals when its completed next weekend.... Feels like all are preparing for what's next.