Tuesday, Christmas Eve, 2024

A light snow drifts down from a gray sky this morning, while birds busy themselves at the feeders. Different groupings of birds come and go. Finches dominated the sunflower seeds for a spell: five raspberry-red male purple finches and a few brown-streaked females; a handful of male and female house finches, looking like drabber cousins; and a few, faintly yellow goldfinches.

Finches are charming but sloppy eaters. The spillage is helpful to the ground-feeders: juncos, white-throated sparrows, and the always opportunistic blue jays. The nearby crabapple, with its sprawling crown, serves as a safe space for all the songbirds to wait for an opening at the feeders.

By midday the sun is out. Close to our house and the dining room windows from which we watch, juncos and sparrows scratch the ground for fallen seeds of goldenrods, coneflowers, little bluestems, and sweet pepperbush. The stems of faded perennials and woody shrubs provide safe cover and protection from the wind. Juncos especially like these spaces. Through binoculars I watch a junco — a gray puffball with a light pink bill with a faint black tip — forage for seeds. The most common bird in our winter yard, yet they bring joy every day.

We’ve gotten another dusting of snow and some rain recently…more on the way tomorrow.  The woods that we walk are silent, but the cold and damp air are bringing birds to the feeders.

Nearly two dozen juncos visit daily. Mostly moving about on the ground, pecking at seeds under our perennials and shrubs with occasional forays to open ground under the feeders. A couple blue jays fly in for a brief feed and a loud call. A handful of white-throated sparrows forage on the ground with the juncos, under cover of tall perennials. This afternoon four downy woodpeckers traded places on the suet feeders.

Darkness is coming early today under solid gray skies, with rain on the way. Cardinals started arriving. As we watched three male cardinals, four more darted in along with three females. Ten in all, just for a few minutes. The females were particularly feisty, chasing each other away. Seems like a lot of wasted energy. But there was one especially stunning male in brilliant red facial feathers. Maybe that is why the females were in a tizzy.

Goldfinches (in their drab winter feathering), chickadees, tufted titmice, and white-breasted nuthatches, visit the feeders during the day. Male and female house finches have also been regular visitors the last few weeks. In just the past 2-3 days we’ve welcomed three beautiful male purple finches. We’ve got a red-gray theme going with our bird community so far this early winter.

Friday, November 1, 2024

Two days in a row, mid-70s, mostly sunny. We got in a 12 mile gravel bike ride before noon. Before the wind picked up.

There is a always a first big wind that shakes loose most of the remaining oak and beech leaves from the canopy trees. We have a lot of oaks and beech in this area. Today was the first big wind. Lots of leaves blew off the trees.

Almost everyone around here spent hours leaf-blowing or raking or mowing leaves this week. We did our share of leaf-raking. Today those efforts were dashed by a new carpet of leaves scattered across lawns, roads, and driveways. As happens every year.

Leaves are essential. Whether on the tree or on the ground. I just read a statistic: According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 7.2% of the nation’s solid waste is yard debris or about 10.5 million tons per year! That is stunning since leaves carried off to a landfill is expensive, unnecessary, and wasteful.

Leave the leaves! We keep all of our leaves…we rake some into piles and carry them on a tarp to a compost pile. Some are mulched and added to a compost bin or added to gardens for winter cover. Many beneficial insects overwinter in leaves. I can’t imagine carting off their habitat to a landfill.

Rejoice as the leaves fall, returning nutrients to the land, and building new soil.