Winter Wildlife

In the past couple weeks I’ve noticed a bird, or perhaps multiple birds, that’s been flying around the neighborhood from tree to tree. It struck me that I’ve never noticed birds in the winter time, and used to assume they all went south. Perhaps they’ve been around but because I wasn’t a birder then I didn’t notice them.

Anyway, at first I thought it might be a Blue Jay. This was from the tail feathers I saw, which had black and white and a blueish tint to them. Perhaps the first one I saw was a Blue Jay. This morning, I saw a bird again, out in the back yard on the ground near the bird feeder. I saw black and white in the tail feathers again, and a blueish-gray back, and then I saw it had a red underbelly. At first I thought it must just be a Robin, but it had a white stripe across its face that didn’t look like a Robin.

I think perhaps it was a Red-breasted Nuthatch, but I’m not sure yet, it maybe was too big to be one. I don’t know if they grow to be Robin-sized. If it is, I’m fairly certain that’s the first time I’ve seen a nuthatch and identified it. Maybe not the most glamorous sighting, but for a complete beginner like me it felt pretty good.

In addition, even though this has been one of the coldest, snowiest winters on record in Michigan, the past week or two has had some abnormally warm days as well. I’m already seeing squirrels moving about and this morning I saw two of them chasing each other around. Is that normal? It seems like they mostly disappear for the winter, getting fat in the fall and then coming out again in spring time. This all may be related to global warming, I think.

Anyways, it’s nice to see some life out there in this frigid season of the year.

Posted by the novice on 12/30 at 04:22 PM