Just a Little Bird Break

Six bird feeders and 4 suet holders adorn our trees over-hanging our back yard deck.  Today 26 gold finches joined the Juncos (13), Chick-a-dees (21), cardinals (3 pair), Blue Jays (6), Mourning Doves (10) woodpeckers (2), and a variety of sparrows (29).

So why not put out another bird feeder.  I had a plastic bowl and a plastic dip/condiment container, a coat hanger and some wire and built a bird feeder that the birds could fly into and eat without the snow falling on top.

Time went by and along with snow blowing and shovelling I did no art work for the day.  But soon the push will be on when Mannie and I sit down to look at the shows for the year.

In the meantime the flocks of birds in our back yard continue to grow, especially with the temperature today being at -21 degrees Celsus (-6 F) at 7am.  They need the food to generate their heat. And thus, we go through a lot of bird seed in the winter.

Now, another reason our back yard feeders are visited so much is the temperatures in the back yard.  At 10:30am, the sun was shining on our deck and the temperature in the backyard was -9C in the shade.  But, and this is the really unique aspect of the property,  at 10:30 am the temperature in the sun registered +7 degrees C --believe it or not! 

This temperature variance occurs because our property is surrounded by tall cedar trees which create a unique biosphere.  I clean the deck each day and so the wood soaks up the sun (the snow even melts) and often there is very little wind.  The back yard, especially on the deck varies in temperature from the temperatures outside our property and even in relationship to our front yard.  And so, the birds come -in droves- because of the temperatures and the free food.