A new year begins. A new year of Covid-19. Currently on the ‘Omicron’ variant. What is next? Sigma? Omega? Pi? Nu? The Nu Covid-19 variant. Has a certain ring to it. I digress…yes Covid rages on. Vaccines are being administered and anti-vax idiotas continue with new conspiracy theories.
But…on another note it is winter! Winter and snow and cold weather and wind and frozen toes and fingers and frostbite. Ah love it! And my backyard menagerie is back. Flocks of Sharp-tailed Grouse visit daily and since I have moved a bird feeder up onto the deck so there is something left for the birds to eat, they land on the railings and line up like a Disney movie. They have to be some of the most amusing creatures I have ever seen. There is a definite hierarchy amongst their ranks as some get pushed away from the feeder and even kicked off the railing! Obviously not their turn to eat. The other day one actually walked up the stairs and onto the deck. He stopped and looked from side to side and then slowly sauntered over to the flower box and popped up onto the railing to see what was for breakfast. It is easy to see their furry legs and fluffy, furry feet and they actually blow them selves up with air like a downfill jacket to retain heat. So very cool.
The chickadees are here as always. And the pretty little red-poles. Both tiny little birds who stay for the winter. I really wonder how evolution worked that one out. I guess as they are so tiny they do not require a lot of food and energy to stay warm and can easily tuck into a tree or hole in a snowbank into the grass or underbrush but still…makes one wonder.
And of course the deer. This fall there was the usual bunch of deer passing through to wander on into the fields close by and a little later there was one lone deer. Small. Young. Probably born in the spring. I noticed him (her?) a few times or at least what I thought was the same one, coming back every day. The neighbors said they noticed the same at their feeder. One morning I looked out the window and it was bedded down under a tree in the backyard. Not a big evergreen with boughs bending down to the ground but one of the old apple trees. Not a tree I would choose to lay under if I was looking for shelter. However at that time it was not yet too cold outside.
He kept returning and eventually I noticed he was bedding down beside the old shed in the back. A little better I suppose. There are more trees around that area and the shed does block the north wind. Now it is a resident. Every morning I get up and look and can see little ears poking up in the spot he has chosen as home. He gets up to eat at the bird feeder (and I just might sprinkle a little more seed onto the ground…I know…that is not a good thing and I really should not do it). After breakfast he usually walks back to his bedroom for a nap…..then back to the feeder then back for a nap. But not without leaving a whole lot of droppings along the way. It is not a trail of breadcrumbs it is a trail of well, other crumbs.
When I go out to fill the bird feeders he sticks his head up to watch me. Sometimes he will jump up and run away into the bush but not always. Judging by the method of how this little guy runs (high hops) it is a Mule deer. I asked those who know better than I.
I managed to dig an old bale out of the windbreak and break it up in the ‘bedroom’ for a little more warmth and it looks like he lays on it and maybe eats it too! Nothing like having a snack in bed and not worrying about the crumbs.
There was a brutal cold snap into the -40’s and I worried every night if he would be there in the morning. And he was. They are made to live outside and know how to survive much better than I would in weather like that.
Every day is a risk for the little guy. Predators but worse, crossing the road and getting hit by a vehicle. I really hope he makes it through the winter. Come spring time and early summer he will need to venture out for food as the birdseed ends. I do not feed the birds in the late spring, summer or fall as there is so much for them to eat in nature.
The Grouse are here. Time to go!
Over the years I have done a lot of hiking. From numerous day trips in the mountains near Calgary whilst in College and University; geology field school for weeks; working for the Geological Survey of Canada in the high Arctic areas of Ellesmere Island, Axel Heiberg for months at a time to living in the Arctic in Yellowknife and working logistics all over the north, so yes….I can say I have a little bit of experience in hiking and all things related.
