Nature Notes

• Today was a gray, overcast day, with temperatures in the 20s, freezing drizzle and light snow in afternoon and evening. As the day began, we still had light snow cover in protected areas. Otherwise the ground was bare. A light breeze was out of the southeast.
• As is his morning ritual, Richard filled feeders in the yard with black oil sunflower seeds, which provide high energy needs for birds in cold weather. This morning, he noted 300 Goldfinches and 14 male Cardinals around the feeders in the yard. Who knows how many female Cardinals there were because they are harder to see. They fed intently, almost feverishly at times. We have noted such behavior when migration is imminent, the weather is about to change, or it is extremely cold. By mid afternoon, the Goldfinches were mostly at the top of the trees, resting, perhaps. We also noted Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Bluejays, House Finches, Tree Sparrows, and a fluffy Fox Squirrel.
• A walk in the woods about noon turned up lots of sign of Turkey scratching in the oak leaf litter on the ground. Those Turkeys can sure make a mess. (I can just imagine what they would say about Humans.) We saw 3 Deer who promptly headed out of view. A Turkey flew from its roost in a tree. We saw Fox and Raccoon droppings. We also saw considerable disruption in oak leaf litter under a cedar tree. Richard thought it was a Turkey, perhaps with help from a Fox Squirrel. Glinda heard Bluejays with their distinctive call and Woodpeckers tap-tap-tapping.
• About 4 pm, a Red-tailed Hawk was sitting prominently in an oak tree to the southwest of and clearly visible from the house. We love these new windows; they are big and it is almost like we are "in Nature". Shortly thereafter, a Tom Turkey with beard clearly visible flew into the same tree, 40 feet above the ground and 20 feet down from the Red-tailed Hawk. Richard wondered if they were both choosing the tree for their night's roost. He could almost hear them say: "I hope you don't snore." Just as they were settling in, 12 Crows flew in and sat a few trees away. The Red-tailed Hawk had flown away and the Crows seemed indifferent to Mr. Turkey.
• Richard has placed "scratch grain" in a few places around the yard's edge to attract Bobwhite Quail. Scratch grain (referring to grain chickens like to scratch around in) includes wheat, oats, corn, and sunflowers. So far, he has only attracted the 3 Deer, which is way too close to our new fruit trees.
• As for the Chickens on Butterfly Hill Farm, it has been a 20 egg day.
• This was one of those days when it would be easy for Humans to say: "Not much is going on." Everything was going on. One just has to stop, look and listen.

And what in Nature did you see today, Dear Reader?

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P.S. So much of our society is disconnected from Nature. Sometimes I see these disconnections and I just have to smile. (Other times I don't.) This time I did. The spell-checker on this Blog site highlighted "Red-tailed" and gave me some options: Red tailed, retailed, detailed, redialed.