Winter at the Cabin

After the excitement of having redpolls at my feeders on Saturday, it's a safe bet that nothing is going to top that one for a while. The redpolls came the day before the temperature dropped into a very wintry range. I had 4 degrees at the cabin on Sunday morning, and with an 18 mph wind chill, it felt very cold.

The wind has since calmed, and my feeders are probably now reaching their peak of activity. So many birds are in the feeder at once, it's difficult to count them all. This is especially true with the juncos. I try to count the most I can see at any one time, but they flit in and out so quickly that I never feel confident I've come up with an accurate one-time number. In this colder weather, the feeders are soon empty. When I'm home, I simply refill them as soon as I notice. During the work week, I fill them up as full as I can make them before I leave for work, but they are always empty by the time I get home. Based on how much the birds ate this weekend, I suspect the feeders are largely empty by noontime.

This is the time of year when I sometimes feel as though I should be hibernating, too. On the sunny days, I am happy to be outside whatever the temperature, but when that wind blows, I will retreat to the warmest room in the cabin, where I want to do little but drink tea or read. Usually, the dogs and cats soon will join me and before you know it, we are all napping, huddled together as though we must to keep warm. Naturally, I prefer the sunny, calm days when I can explore the quiet of a wintry forest. But even my temporary hibernation has its pleasures, in its quiet and slow pace. It's only then that I can reflect a bit and think, a rare pleasure in any season.