This morning we awoke to the glitter of sunshine on soft white snow. A light snowfall during the night left maybe an inch or two, at most, covering the ground and powdering the tops of bushes and lining the branches of bare-limbed trees. Trees in the woods looked especially pretty, encased in sparkling, icy snow.<\/p>\n
It was a brief, bright frosting \u2013 by mid morning snow was dripping down from the trees, and by mid afternoon it was almost all gone. But before then, I went out for a walk, to enjoy the snow while it lasted. The feeders in the front yard were busy with small birds \u2013 lots of American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins \u2013 together they\u2019re going through a lot of birdseed every day lately; helped by Downy Woodpeckers, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Chipping Sparrows, House Finches, a pair of Northern Cardinals, and a Carolina Wren or two. Pine Warblers were singing, and coming to the feeders now and then, too.<\/p>\n
At least a hundred and probably more American Robins were scattered out on the ground and in the trees, scratching and rustling and calling out in startled squeaks. Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows fed more quietly underneath the feeders. Up in one corner of the yard, a Hermit Thrush scratched around with several Robins, looking thin and pale brown, almost insubstantial among the big, sturdy black and red-breasted birds \u2013 though with bold spots on its upper breast and a lively manner, the skinny Hermit was much more active than the solid Robins; it moved quickly, lightly across the ground in spurts, head up and alert.<\/p>\n
A Goldfinch came to the birdbath for water, and seemed unbothered to find it frozen solid. It slipped out onto the ice, only a little unsteady, and leaned down with its head turned to one side to scoop water from the surface where some had already melted, splashing up a spray of drops each time it drank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning we awoke to the glitter of sunshine on soft white snow. A light snowfall during the night left maybe an inch or two, at most, covering the ground and powdering the tops of bushes and lining the branches of bare-limbed trees. Trees in the woods looked especially pretty, encased in sparkling, icy snow. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}