Join Nature Notes Tuesday at 12:00 am EST to Friday at 11:00 pm EST. More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature?

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We had the blizzard with bitterly cold temperatures then two days of record warmth following by 2 days of freezing rain and back to bitterly cold again.

I went out every hour to clear the snow out of the bird feeders that were hanging or on the ground. I made sure the heated bird baths were filled, but the day the freezing rain started the yard got quiet.

Freezing rain is rain that freezes on contact to trees, shrubs, houses anything. It is dangerous and it was nasty and slippery. The only person who can remain upright is my husband who is part mountain goat and after years of Fencing, has really, really good balance for guy in his late 60’s.

I think flying and getting your wings iced up could be deadly and in fact a rehabber near me who usually only deals with white-tailed deer had to rescue a huge female red-tailed hawk who was cold and dehydrated. They are big hawks.

Red-tailed Hawk -wikipedia

So if a bird that size had trouble then I guess I can’t be surprised that my yard that would have at least 125 birds of 16 species on a cold, wintry day has less than half that number. There were about 60 american goldfinch. I counted 35 today. There were about 40 mourning dove in winter. I counted 5 today. They must have frozen to death. We had a cold winter in 2015, but there wasn’t the freezing rain afterwards. I feel really sad about this……

On Tuesday we are going from bitter and snow back to freezing rain and sleet again. Will there be any birds left in my yard?

ice and snow coating the trees

Write a blog post with a photo, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. Please submit one blog post per week and link back to nature notes in some way.

Nature walks are wonderful. But you don’t have to travel to special location to enjoy Mother Nature. There is so much to see in your own neighborhood or even in your own back or front yard. Get a guide-book of the wildlife in your area and learn the calls of birds and frogs and toads. So many times I hear a bird that lets me know what I am looking for in the trees.