Winter is upon us

Winter is upon us. Yesterday was warm but dreary, with rain and snow alternating all day long. In the afternoon, I looked out at the fifth oak and saw a bird that was a little larger than a dove. With binoculars, I could make out an orange tail and orange shoulders. It seemed quite miserable with its tail feathers spread out as if trying to dry them. I thought I saw a vertical black strip on its head when it turned. I looked through Sibley and was able to identify it as an adult male American kestrel. Cool! I haven’t seen one of those in several years. He was a shy little guy. I wasn’t able to get very close with my camera, and this is the best picture I could get before he flew off.

Kestrel drying its tail. You can kind of see the orange shoulders and the black tipped orange feathers of the tail.

Today has been just like winter. The temperature was 29° when I got up at 6:15. It has dropped steadily ever since with a wicked northwest wind blowing snow. Hilda opened the coop door this morning, and no one wanted to go out. There weren’t even any hens by the door. She closed the coop again.

I will be easing back into work this week. Classes don’t start for two more weeks, but I have meetings already on Tuesday. I figured I might as well get back in the routine. I made five servings of carrot and celery sticks and peeled five grapefruits for my lunches. Even though it looked cold and nasty out, I have been trying to walk outside more often in my increasingly elusive quest for a good night’s sleep. As long as I had to bundle up to take the kitchen scraps to the mulch bin and the carrot peelings to the girls, I decided to walk at least a little.

I put the carrot peelings on the ground and opened the coop door again. A couple of girls stuck their heads out, but no one ventured forth. I left the door open while I went for my walk. I had overdressed and was sweating by the time I got to the southwest corner. It really wasn’t such a bad day to be outside. There was more snow on the ground than I realized. The creek was so pretty that I went back to the house for my camera and walked to the creek again to take a picture.



The creek, frozen over, in the snow

All of the carrot peels were still on the ground when I went to the coop again. I shut the door and let the girls be. They really don’t like the wind. I checked for eggs and found three. All of the next boxes were occupied, maybe because they were the warmest places in the coop.

Carrot scraps untouched outside the coop door



Left to right: Nadia, Cleopatra, and Lizette in the nest boxes

Our cat Della is 20 years old now. She’s holding up fairly well. She sleeps a lot. We have a futon that is pretty much all hers. When she wants us to pet her head, she stands at the end and cries. The video does not capture her best singing. She likes to sleep under a blanket in what we call the “cat cave.” Some years ago when she started getting feeble, Terry made a handicapped ramp for her. He then patiently trained her to use it by dragging a string up and down the ramp while she chased it. Eventually, she learned to use it on her own. Lately, she has taken to walking down the ramp with her front legs while sliding on her back legs. It’s pretty hilarious.