Birds In February

Several species of birds winter in my garden. They are frost-resistant and have learned to get food when there is a lot of snow and in severe frosts. They are saved from low temperatures by dense layers of fat and fluffy plumage that retains heat. They suffer not so much from frost as from a lack of food to generate heat.

 

great tit

 

 magpies

 

In the garden and adjacent forest, I photographed siskins, redpoll bullfinches, tits, nuthatches, and waxwings. They love sunflower seeds, watermelon and melon seeds and pieces of unsalted lard.

 

jay

  waxwings

 

jay

When I put sunflower seeds in the feeder, I try to crush it slightly, then the great tits and little tits eat it well. Watermelon seeds are too hard for great tits in severe frosts. What bird species live in your garden or near you?

 

 

My video about the garden bird feeder.

Winter Poem

 

The short midwinter days are here,
The nights are frosty now and chill—
The solemn midnight of the year—
The snow lies deep on vale and hill.
No longer runs the stream let nigh,
The ice has bound its waters fast;
An Arctic wind is sweeping by,
The bare trees shiver in the blast.

 

The icy northern blast sweeps by,
From wild wastes of the Arctic snow;
Above us drops a wintry sky,
A bleak white landscape lies below.

But, 'neath the chilly Polar blast,
A low, sweet undertone I hear:
"The wintry storms will soon be past,
And pleasant Spring-time days are near." 

By Ellwood Roberts (January 22, 1846 - January 30, 1921), he was an American poet and genealogist.