It has been an extreme few weeks in New England that has brought us over 40″ of snow in our area of New Hampshire. Today the snow is coming down steady again… enough that the snowplows have cleared our drive 4 times! We always feed the birds but during severe weather we step up our support as natural food supplies are difficult to find. We have trenches and we shovel out to refill feeders twice a day. The snow is as light as ivory flakes so the shoveling isn’t strenuous. And, amazingly, it’s full of tunnels where the squirrels are searching for wayward birdseed. They pop up here and there like Whac-A-Mole game.
The familiar backyard avian crew frequents our feeders… just in greater numbers in this weather. The black-capped chickadees, the white-breasted nuthatches, tufted titmice, and tons of American goldfinch, pine siskins, and purple finches dine on the tube feeder and the covered bluebird feeder. The noisy finches that number in the twenties also monopolize the nyjer seed feeder.
American Goldfinches
Northern cardinals, mourning doves, a handful of blue jays, white-throated sparrows and a few other sparrows, a large number of dark-eyed juncos, a common redpoll or two, American finches and pine siskins hop around atop the snow for the seeds we scatter.
Tufted Titmouse
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-bellied woodpeckers, Hairy and Downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, the chickadees and titmice go through the suet in no time.
Black-capped Chickadee
Female Purple Finches
Pine Siskin
The avian activity provides a lot of excitement and entertainment at our house. Breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime at our table are hives of activity at the window feeder. We enjoy watching the shy, the gregarious, the bullies, the bold, the eat-and-run birds, the noisy, and the birds that like to watch us watching them.
That’s how much snow we had throughout last winter in southern Ontario. that, plus the ice storm. My sympathy to you and all your feathered, two-legged and four legged friends too.
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As long as I’m snug at home, the snow doesn’t bother me. Ice dams are another story!
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Bluejays are handsome but they can be brutes. Great bird pictures, we have many of the same species, though I don’t have the pine siskins or titmice.
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I didn’t realize the titmouse was a rarity in your area. They hang with the chickadees here.
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Lovely photos of your feathered friends. Your pathways look just like ours – tunnels. 🙂
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Somehow I think your snowy pathways are a little deeper than ours…. but anything over a boot is DEEP.
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Wow, beautiful photos and story. There was a time when we never saw a greedy purple finch around here, but now………wow; however, most birds are a delight.
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You may be seeing the house finch that was introduced from the West Coast to the East Coast in the 1950’s. The purple finch is a native bird and the state bird of New Hampshire. Their numbers are said to be declining due to competition with the house finch. In Tidewater Virginia all we saw were those house finches!
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With all that snow covering the ground, it makes me a little sad for those birds not lucky enough to live near someone like you.
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