Friday, December 31, 2021

Year's End


My door to the outside is mostly glass and allows a view from my reading chair (not quite the view above). The view this week was mostly snow, though there were more chickadees than usual. After the last snowfall (over 20 cms on Wednesday night) I hauled out the sack of bird seed I purchased last summer and set up a feeding station (in the middle of the yard, pictured above). 

It took about twenty minutes for the chickadees to muster the trust to land at my station. Or maybe they were negotiating with each other as to who goes first, second, third ... -- the proverbial pecking order. Eventually the first chickadee landed, and it stood there for the longest time -- not feeding. After a few jerky pecks it flew off and was followed but a second, a third ... 

-- until out of nowhere came this flicker, all wings and colour and relatively huge. I opened the door and off it went. I watched for an hour, and it never came back. I counted 26 chickadees in that hour. Or maybe it was the same three chickadees, taking turns.

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