21 December 2013 - Happy Solstice

I hope everyone out there is joining me in welcoming back the light!  Here's to longer days and shorter nights, albeit a minute or two at a time. Just the thought makes me quite joyful.

The forecasters even got it right. Snow. More snow and bitter cold.

I managed to injure my right knee and right shoulder. I have wonderful neighbors who kept their blowers busy with their own driveways and just added mine on to the task with each additional snowfall.  They are a gift. My neighbors have become my community. 

I was pretty much a home-body all December. It hurt my shoulder and knee to drive (yep, an automatic transmission is looking better all the time) so I stayed in. Even staying in I was able to add another bird to my list! After a second snow storm of yet another 12 inches, the birds were taking over the yard and cleaning out the feeders. 


 
There are feeders on three sides of the house so I always some birdy thing to see. I was watching the birds squabbling over the suet when a little downy flew in. 

 










He landed on a small tree and just clung to the trunk for the longest time. I finally realized it wasn't a downy at all, but a red-naped sapsucker!  

I had been told there were sapsuckers in this area, but this was my first sighting! I certainly had seen signs of them, they leave horizontal rows of holes behind. 

My yard birds are a great source of amusement for both me and the cats. The boys like the big birds. The magpies and quail cause them to natter until their jaws must hurt. 

When there is a hawk fly over, many of the quail will take refuge right next to the house. 

It is not really a safe spot for them. Adding to their terror, the cats go nuts when this happens.

I have a regular flock of six to eight Steller's Jays that show up every day to hit the suet feeders. I am particularly fond of these birds. Big, bold, brash and noisy. What's not to like? I spend too much time trying for the perfect picture. Haven't taken it yet, but I'm working on it.  

I am enamored of their spiky crests and the gorgeous blues. If I could only get one to sit still in the sunshine.

After David made and installed the new feeder hanger with the squirrel guard (it works!) it didn't take the jays more than a day or two to figure out that they could stand on the platform and eat from the feeder. It must be a nice change from swinging madly while clinging on the screen. 

Jack always said, "If you feed them, they will come." Last year we would get so excited if a towhee showed up. This year we have about ten working over the underbrush. They are fast, flighty and shy. 

They prefer scratching in the dirt.  There is a tiny patch of dry dirt under the wisteria and they spend a lot of time scratching in there. 


I always know where they have been by the mess they leave behind. 

I think of them as my tiny gardeners.




 
The hawks are still using my yard to shop for groceries. Yes, I know they need to eat too, but it sure hurts when their hunting scares the birds into my windows. While a hawk was hunting quail, I lost three of them to broken necks on the windows. The hawk didn't even have the decency to take one of those but continued on after live prey, and got it to. 

I was telling David about my plan to get some cheap or hopefully free Christmas trees on Christmas Eve. I thought I could put a few in the back yard for the little birds to use as a hawk shelter. 

This last weekend we had rain, freezing rain, ice, then snow. David brought me a big pine bough that had broken from the weight of the ice.  It is a start!


 


In addition to the snow and cold, the further into the month we got, the worse the inversions. 


Early on, the air was crisp, clear and the stars glittered. The crescent was so bright it lit up it the rest of its circle.  

Fast forward a few days and we were looking at the moon through a haze of pollution. Euphemisms are used here a lot. The weather people talk about haze and fog.  Apparently it is not politically correct to call it smog or pollution.

A couple nights later I happened to look up just as the moon was crowning the pine tree beside the house.  

I am continually surprised by how many interesting things there are to see no matter where you are or no matter what you are doing. I saw this while on a routine trip out to the garbage cans. Truly, the word I live by is circumspice.

Near the end of the month, the inversion was so thick, that as the full moon rose it looked green, then orange. 

Quite something to see, actually. 

 As it rose higher in the sky it turned quite orange. Would have made a great Halloween moon. 

We definitely need a solution to the pollution.

I did not cut the yucca stalks before winter set in, so they are quite showy against the snow. I still get people stopping in the driveway to gawk at them. Makes me laugh. 

It is unexpected to see colors like these  bursting out of a snow bank in the winter. Most fun.