My poor birds!
While I can sit here snug inside a heated house, my feathered friends are struggling through a Canadian winter. January is always a cold month, although this year it’s been warmer than normal. I’m not sure the birds think the same.
I took these pictures at the warmest time of the day last week. The temperature had ‘zoomed’ up to -22C (-7F) for the daytime high, and there was not a cloud in the sky. The sun, however, was not warm enough to melt the frost on the conifer trees even at midday.
I looked out the back window and saw all these highly fluffed-up house finches sitting near the top of a tree, trying to catch whatever warmth could be had from the weak sun’s rays. The poor birds were almost round.
When the sun goes down it gets even colder. Some of our wind chills last week were approaching -29C (-20F). Major fluffing going on.
Interestingly enough, I haven’t noticed any fluffed nuthatches or woodpeckers, and there’s no shortage of them in the yard. Black-capped chickadees have so many wonderful adaptions to our weather they don’t seem to be affected either. They probably don’t sit still long enough to fluff.
Fortunately for the birds, beasts and humans our weather has now improved. It’s supposed to hover around +5C (+41F) for the next couple of weeks, and there’s not a snowflake in sight. Can spring be far behind?!