ICY FEBRUARY

The bird feeder is a beautiful sight this morning as I sit here in the cozy warmth gazing through my window at it. Icicles have created a crystal picket fence around portions of it. The furtherest side of it must be clear, however. That is where birds keep zipping to and from in a splash of brilliant color. Red finches appear especially colorful against a white landscape, as do the cardinals. Titmice, chickadees, nuthatch, sparrows and of course snow birds (myriads of them) dart back and forth. A dove sits perched on the roof of the feeder. She just sit there, sort of bleary eyed, watching all the activity going on below. I know what she's waiting for . When the traffic below begins to lessen she, joined by a number of her own kind, will glide to the icy surface below and with ease and grace begin pecking up what the other birds have scattered. Mourning Doves are an interesting lot. Cautiously, they work their way to food and water sources taking all the time in the world to finally make their move to eat or drink. At the slightest thing they spook, making a noisy getaway. Then very slowly they begin to return. At least a dozen of them visit our water garden each evening at dusk playing out this ritual, as they are now doing at the feeder.

Well, I didn't intend for this entry to be so short. However, the lights keep flickering telling me that a power failure just might be in the offing. The lines, shrubs, and trees out there are well coated with ice. So that is telling me it's time to log off and perhaps just kick back a while and watch the birds on this beautiful February morning. No time to edit this entry.