17 January 2011 - Spring sneaks in

I am not a morning person. I should rephrase that: I am not a morning person--anymore. I used to be. I’d get up early in the morning and I’d be at work sitting at my desk by 7:15,  which also meant that I could leave at 3:30.  I did this for years. What happened is that I married a night owl, nothing wrong with that, but after he retired 16 years ago, his late hours got even later. The only way we really had time together was for me to stay up later as well. Not to mention that there is nothing I hate more than going to bed alone. These days I get up later and manage to drag myself in to work about 9:30.

However, because I have an overdeveloped work ethic, whenever I have a doctor appointment, I schedule it for as early as possible, so that I still get to work around 9:30.  I know, crazy.

This month I have had quite a few early appointments: dentist, orthodontist, mammogram, optomologist, and a few early morning meetings. But what this getting up so early in January has done, is to alert me to the fact that birds are getting into spring mode. Even though sunrise is about 8 am, when I step out of the house to feed the ferals at  7:30, the frigid air is vibrating with bird song. The red-bellied woodpeckers are already belting out their one note shriek. Little birds are twittering in the shrubs. Chickadees are busy in the lilacs calling out deedee, deedee. The cardinals are whispering up in the top of the crabapple trees. How interesting!  In my previous world view, the birds started up in March, but no, here in January the spring song has started in the predawn.

This morning when I was standing guard over Hughie’s dish (protecting my favorite feral from the ravening herd) I noticed a pair of sparrows very busily cleaning the birdhouse. They were working together to get last year’s nest out the tiny little bird door. It was coming out the same way it went it in--one beakful at a time.

Made me think I should stagger out of bed earlier to see what is going on in the world.  You can see the latest fuzzy bunch at her feet. She was pushing it all off the ledge. That’s my kind of housekeeping.

I also noticed another activity going on in the south forty. We have a very old, very tall silver maple, with two squirrel nests about as high in the tree as possible. Both nests were being attacked by starlings. There were anywhere from four to seven starlings poking around each nest. They were pulling leaves out and scattering the nests.

I don’t know if they were looking for food remnants or just being neighborhood vandals, but it was interesting. Because of the backlighting, it is hard to see, but there are three birds in the nest, plus the one underneath, who was reaching up and pulling the stuffing out from below.

I watched in amazement for about five minutes before it dawned on me to get my camera. This continued for a while, until all at once the entire flock lifted off as one and flew south.

And for the weather report: Cold and more cold.

Since Dec 2 when we got our first snow and sank to  highs around 10, it has been bitter. Cold with snow, cold with winds, blizzard warnings. Bone chilling cold. On January 1^st we ushered in the New Year with the annual January thaw. From 22 degrees the day before we hit 48 with rain. Amazing. All the ice and snow disappeared overnight. The grass was actually still green it had not yet turned the dried yellow color that we see when the snow melts in March. Our thaw lasted two days. Whump! Back into the high teens and low twenties again with more snow.  Right now it is 20 degrees and the ever present wind gives us a 14 degree wind chill factor. We have a winter storm warning for tonight. Snow mixed with icy rain and sleet. I do wonder where the rain is coming from  when it is this cold. Wonder what the commute will be like in the morning?

At the moment, the sky is merely hazy, which is a nice change as we are two days away from a full moon , and right now, at 6:45,  the moon is starting to rise.

It reminds of all the movies where someone tells the dead or dying guy  “Go to the light!”  Even through the haze, the moon was so bright that it made me feel like I was being pulled up into a tunnel. The air is so cold that the light was crystalline. I so understand how people can worship the moon. 

I have spent a lot of time over the last couple weeks shoveling snow. We get one inch. The next day we get four inches. Then two inches. As the snow has been light fluffy stuff, I have been shoveling rather than using the blower. 

While shoveling, I have noticed the pattern of cat tracks through the yard and driveway.  It is interesting that one cat comes through, then all subsequent trips are made in the same footprints. How do they do that? Even watching the ferals show up for dinner I can see that as they make their way across the yard, they are carefully stepping in their last path. I find this odd, because they occasionally get the crazy and chase each other around in the snow, or bat pieces of icicles around. No path is needed during those times, but when the game is over, they follow an existing path back to the garage or the deck.