February 5: Melting
Feb. 6th, 2011 11:25 amFrom years of experience, I knew that I'd better get out of bed early if I wanted to enjoy the snow, and I was right; the temperature warmed above freezing and most of the snow in the sunny spots was melted by afternoon. It was very pretty in the morning, though, and the icicles that come with the melting sparkled like diamonds in the sun.

There's a bit of seed left in the birdfeeder, and I had the opportunity to watch the birds go at it for awhile. House finches and juncos, mostly, eating messily, scattering seeds onto the slushy snow below and then hopping about on top of the snow retrieving them. I saw something that justified my decision not to clean up last summer's plants from my pots: a dark-eyed junco sitting on the balcony rail, eating millet seeds from the dried seed heads in the cherry tomato pot. It was a few volunteer stalks of millet grass that I allowed to grow, to see what happened, and I was delighted when they got big enough to start forming the grain heads. I hadn't thought of them having a practical use, though.

Junco from last year
At one point, something startled a pair of finches and they launched, one of them straight into the glass door. It must have been a hard hit, because when the bird changed directions and flew, it left behind a puff of tiny grey feathers drifting down to the boards. I hope he was okay. It's a good sign that he wasn't stunned.

There's a bit of seed left in the birdfeeder, and I had the opportunity to watch the birds go at it for awhile. House finches and juncos, mostly, eating messily, scattering seeds onto the slushy snow below and then hopping about on top of the snow retrieving them. I saw something that justified my decision not to clean up last summer's plants from my pots: a dark-eyed junco sitting on the balcony rail, eating millet seeds from the dried seed heads in the cherry tomato pot. It was a few volunteer stalks of millet grass that I allowed to grow, to see what happened, and I was delighted when they got big enough to start forming the grain heads. I hadn't thought of them having a practical use, though.

Junco from last year
At one point, something startled a pair of finches and they launched, one of them straight into the glass door. It must have been a hard hit, because when the bird changed directions and flew, it left behind a puff of tiny grey feathers drifting down to the boards. I hope he was okay. It's a good sign that he wasn't stunned.