Nature never fails to amaze anyone who simply takes a moment to marvel. No season impresses me more than winter, especially the bone-weakening winters we have in the Northeastern United States. Most years--this one especially--the winds whip snow into an avalanche of frothy freeze which coats our homes, cars, gardens--anything exposed to their glacial assault. Animals scurry into hibernation, car batteries concede defeat and our home-heating bills skyrocket. Yet some things--some really little things actually--remain astonishingly indifferent to the deep freeze: birds.
Each winter I wonder about these amazing creatures. And never have I wondered more than during this year's arctic plunge, with our near-record-smashing snowfall amounts and single-digit temperature dips. How on Earth can these little creatures not only survive, but thrive? The tiniest Tufted Titmouse can outlast the biggest, fittest, strongest of humans in a head-to-beak competition of element-braving. My hat is off to them--but only figuratively. My silly-looking trapper's cap, complete with faux-fur lining, has been plastered to my head all season. It barely gets a reprieve (I reluctantly place it aside when I shower), while the Black-capped Chickadee's topper is just for show!
Yes, the birds in the winter wonderland (or ice-encrusted site of Armageddon--however you view it) outside my kitchen window may weigh as much as my foggy breath billowing through the winter air, but their spirit, their fortitude and grace against nature's seemingly insurmountable opposition, places them larger than life in my mind. Humbly I scatter a few handfuls of wild bird seed onto the snow around the barberry bushes (which I have always hated, but will perpetually keep because their red berries draw the birds from far and wide--especially Cardinals, Blue Jays, White-throated Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos), thinking it's the least I can do to repay them for their sweet trilling songs, offering hope in their melodies: Spring will arrive!
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