Keeping Little Creatures Alive

Our winter was mild here in New England until late January, and then all hell broke loose in the form of three huge snowfalls, cold, and more snowfalls of several inches.  It snowed practically every day.  When it didn't, we would race to the grocery store, drugstore, and pet store (cat food).  We also visited the various stores in our area that sold birdseed and suet.
 suet.  


It became obvious that if the neighborhood didn't feed the birds they would die.  We put seed and suet (in feeders) out on the front porch which was the only area not covered by 5-6 feet of snow.  The birds came and came and came.  Before the big snows, I had noticed a pair of Carolina Wrens hanging out in the stack of firewood on the front porch.  Once I had identified them, I became concerned because they eat bugs and insects and well, there weren't any except for a couple dead bugs I found in the house.

 

I thought about Mealy Worms,  but that seemed like it would be a hassle and maybe even an expensive hassle, so  I put a few chicken bones with little scraps of meat on them atop the woodpile and in a few chinks.  The wrens were observed pecking away.  It seemed kind of like cannabalism, but I continued to feed them from chicken and turkey bones and once some sauteed ground pork (with no salt or seasonings).  Of course the titmouse found some of the meat and the wrens also ate suet.

Many winter birds eat suet.

We've had hairy and downy woodpeckers, the titmice, juncos (lots of juncos), nuthatches (what we call the "Upside Down Bird,") and beaucoup chickadees. There's a sparrow or two which I haven't identified.  A small flock of turtle doves comes to eat, as do bluejays and cardinals.  Rabbits visit, and something gnaws the old gourd left over from Halloween.  The carrot tops have been ignored.  Of course the squirrels come and I have noticed that the chipmunks are no longer hibernating.  Hoping they don't move into the woodpile and displace the Carolina Wrens.  No doubt the corn will become more popular.  A couple of house finches have been seen on the feeder too. 

Carolina Wren

In addition to the feeders, we strew seed in the snow and all the porch railing.  When all the snow melts, there will be a couple pounds of sunflower seed hulls to sweep away.  They will probably make good mulch and soil conditioner. 
We haven't seen the flock of wild turkeys since fall, and I can only hope they are finding something to eat somewhere.  Last seen, the flock had twenty birds including one that is lame.

Do you feed the birds in winter?  We always do, but this year it's been a MISSION.

The upside down bird. 

Sucking It Up in the Snow

Why do I feel a bad case of cabin fever coming on when I was out  yesterday morning and in New York City from Thursday - Sunday?  Grocery shopping on Monday. 

This morning, with all good intentions I decided to take a cake of suet out to the empty bird feeder.  But I couldn't.  The way around the garage had  5 feet of snow.  The door to the deck is blocked.  I thought maybe the sidewalk and then a slog thru the yard, but the shovellers had a big wall by the sidewalk, too big to plow thru with good intentions and feet.  I seriously thought about jumping out the living room window (crazy, I know), but the icicles were like pointy daggers, and I whacked at them, but didn't get them all.  Besides, (duh!), how would I get back into the house?  Marooned in the back yard and having to call 911.  How embarrassing would that be? I did have my phone along.   I flung bird seed out the open window, and the juncos were there almost immediately.  On the front porch, we have titmice, chicadees, juncos, turtle doves and bluejays.  And one exotic sparrow.  Marsh?  Swamp?  Downy, Hairy, and one big mother of a flicker eat at the suet feeders, one of which either fell down or was ripped down by a ravenous raccoon, and the other is empty.  The third one still has a bit of suet.  When it's gone, I absolutely have to figure out a way.   

In Boston yesterday, a coyote fell thru the ice of the Charles River (in a very urban area) and was rescued.  I hope people have found a way to feed the feral cats.  In New York on Fifth Avenue in a posh neighborhood, a flock of sparrows was all fluffed up and cheeping hungrily.  Doubt if anyone is feeding them.  Maybe feeders in Central Park.  Have wonderful photo of hundreds of pigeons on a power line. 

So, you are asking, how much snow do we have?  See below.

View from our front porch.

East Side, West Side, All Around the town of Old New York

Before the last storm.  Even higher now.  Ye gods!

The Wandering Mind

Have you ever noticed that some activities free your mind to wander and ponder and go thither and yon?  For me these activities are listening to classical music (especially chamber music) in a concert hall and working out in my aerobics class.  One activity is basically passive (the concert) and the other involves some jumping around, but the effect on me is the same.  The only constant is music; because of course we do aerobics and lift weights to music. 

In my aerobics class I always get good ideas for my writing, and sometimes even a solution to a thorny problem will pop right into my head while we’re “scooping” or doing the “grape vine.” 

When I debugged computer programs, taking a shower frequently moistened the mind as well as the body.  Taking a walk is good, too.  One of the best things about Nantucket was being carless all week.  We even stopped renting bikes and just walked everywhere except when we caught the beach bus.  Walking is done in human time. 

Writing has to take a hiatus when the holidays are here and the house is full of guests, and now my tasks are done and it’s back to the manuscript again.  A few ideas have percolated up during the break.  A writer is ALWAYS writing even if she is driving along a country road or watching the birds pecking for seed in the snow.  Or peeling carrots.  Or . . . Or . . . Or . . . Writing is like breathing.  Even when you’re  on autopilot. Especially when you're on autopilot.

The cats have had two days of excellent bird watching.  Thisbe flattens herself against the living room rug when the juncos and doves eat on the deck.  I see that we still have the pretty little song (?) sparrow that was here last winter.  Or is he a marsh sparrow?  They all look alike, and by the time I drag out the bird book and find “sparrows,” he is gone. 

We also have a handsome flicker and a trio (ménage a trois) of doves who were also around last winter.  I have cracked corn for the wild turkeys but haven’t seen any.  At Glue Factory Pond (quaint name, yes?) there are no birds this winter.  The white geese vanished, and now the ducks and even the seagulls are gone, as are even the Canadian geese and they never leave. 

Winter has us in its grip, but the mind is not housebound and ranges far and wide.  I hope you are snug and warm and even a bit plump for the cold months ahead.

Grapeshot

They're Baaaack!

The birds are back, as mysteriously as they left. With a turtle dove added. The flock of robins is happy in the cow pasture. I fed the cows the last scraps of fruits and veggies this morning. There's a new young cow (half-grown) bringing the little herd up to five. Iris and Maggie are still rambunctious.

It seems like a week that I've been getting ready to leave, longer than that if you calculate pants hemmed, dry cleaning, lists, cat care and all that good stuff.

The cats know something is up and are bearing up pretty well. Always sad when one's adult's desert one for an unknown period of time. I feel sorry for Thisbe, so sad and sensitive.

My writing group isn't crazy about the last scene. In a sense, it's become drudgery. Last week was fun. Rewriting in store. I'm just feeling my way through the novel, even though I know what's going to happen.

I should hear from a publisher, an agent and ABNA while I'm gone. Could there be good news? Maybe the census will call and tell us we're hired.

Or will sucking it up be required yet again?

Back on the 20th. Stay tuned.

Chocolate Panna Cotta + Port Wine Ice Cream

I don't normally make fancy desserts. Cookies and fruit salad are the norm in our household if there even is dessert. But the intense chocolate whatever-it-was with the port wine ice cream that we ate at Poste in DC inspired me. And S.O.'s birthday needed a proper dessert. Usually I make a marble cake if there's time, but one huge cake and three people equals over-indulgence. So we have instead eight helping of panna cotta instead of 20 helpings of cake. And the ice cream will keep and I hope we don't go whole hog (in this case an apt description) and gobble it all down. I'll do photos when the dessert is served. Tonight.

We also have rib eye steaks, baked potatoes with ALL the trimmings, broccoli, and mesclun salad with cherry tomatoes and avocado on the menu. I did this in lieu of all three of us going to a fancy place or a steak house for dinner. These days, that would have been the better part of $200, and instead we are doing it for under $50, and that includes a decent bottle of port which we can savor into the future for a long time. So . . .

Now back to my speech about how I wrote The Shadow Warriors. I hope it is of some interest to the group of administrative assistant professionals who will be the audience. It's always hard to know how interested people are in writing. You wonder. Do they read? What do they read? Do they give two whoops and a holler? I'm redoing a speech I gave years ago and now I realize that speech wasn't very good. Of course hardly anyone heard it because the venue was a downscale suburb and nobody showed up except the librarian and some of my friends. One of those evenings a writer would just as soon forget. Whatever.

Toastmasters is a wonderful organization and has improved my speaking skills greatly, but I still have a ways to go. Goals are good. Self-improvement is good. Promoting one's book is good.

Time to get out of my jammy's. Seems like Saturday.

This morning we had a flicker on the main suet feeder for the first time. Man, that bird is big. Lots of bird business today, and I think I saw a goldfinch, but on the suet not the thistle seed. Is that possible? We have five feeders and it's a job to keep them all full, especially suet in the winter which is soooo popular. I got two big containers from the Audubon society.