Here comes the sun!
It's here!
It may be a bit weak at the moment, hard to really grasp the difference, but things are changing. It really is here!!
Two weeks after the winter solstice, and it is changing already…the animals feel it too!
It sneaks into our everyday lives, our boring and tedious days, (let's be honest….)It makes us feel better….happier, calmer, more hopeful…And it is also in the plants and animals we live with. Keep your eyes and ears open to the signs of change….
The light is finally changing…our planet is in the inexorable march to spring….Woohoo!
Which picture makes you feel better?
Brrrrr….
What a difference a day makes…which photograph makes you feel happier?
Here we are, having the coldest stretch of days we have had in several years and yet we can be positive once again…we are going in the right direction…towards the light! The vernal equinox…..ahhhh
The Breakfast Tree…with social distancing…
I have been watching our Breakfast Tree the last while, and it has been busier than usual. It is one of two Euonymous alatus (Burning Bush) at the front of our house which have berries. Every morning I put up the blind and have a direct view of one of the trees. This first tree pulls in the birds to eat those berries but they don't touch the ones on the other burning bush until they have stripped the first one bare. (Must be like going for breakfast at Tiffany’s and moving on to MacDonald’s only once the first table is bare …..).
Pileated Woodpecker
The Breakfast Tree has been populated on recent bone-chilling mornings with several pairs of cardinals, lots of goldfinches and pine siskins, plus a few unusual ones such as a single Carolina wren, a white-throated sparrow, and a couple of juncos. They must spend the night in the evergreens near by, trying to just get through to morning. And then they arrive at the Breakfast Tree just as the changing light from the sunrise can be observed, and felt. They feel it too, despite the frigid temperatures. They then move on to the back eating area where they empty two silo feeders filled with sunflower chips in two days and work through the suet, with the help of squirrels, in about 4, they are so hungry. Chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches join the three different types of woodpeckers (hairy, downy and pileated ) using that suet nonstop from now until spring. The Cardinals and Chickadees have even started to bring out their spring song in recent days. That is a real treat!!!
While we see the animals react to our newfound sunshine/light, we also start noticing changes in our plants…indoor first, and later, in our gardens or balconies.
I don't know about your indoor plants, but some of mine - the succulents, especially, well, they've seen better days by the time the light changes! More about that in a bit!
The Breakfast Tree at Night
The Breakfast Tree…Part Two
After having just written about our Breakfast Tree in Ottawa, I Had an email from my grandson with a picture of their Breakfast Tree!
Our Manhattan Breakfast Tree….
Here it is in Manhattan three days ago… ‘Look at all of the birds in our tree’, he says, with great pride…This is obviously a favourite tree for Robins already migrating north. I believe it is a Honey Locust, and the birds are eating the pods which overwinter and provide a critical source of food come spring when birds fly thousands of miles to reach their summer breeding grounds.
Have you got a Breakfast Tree? Or a lunch or dinner tree? If not, maybe this is the year to put one in…