The snowfall we had last weekend created great outdoor fun.
Not just a skiff, but a big, deep, fluffy wet snow that brought out the child in a lot of people, as evidenced by their sledding in Jones Park and on the slopes near the Prairie Street overpass.
If snowmen were counted, the population of Emporia would have increased a couple hundred!
I had ample time to think a lot of things over as I shoveled the driveway Sunday afternoon after work. For one, why wasn’t my wife doing this?
And two, if I had applied myself in school a little more, perhaps I would own a tractor and blade. And what was it about this snow that would make my 35-year-old daughter jump head first and slide down a hill without benefit of a sled?
That had to come from her mother’s side of the family!
My shoveling task was really very pleasant. Besides giving me some much needed exercise, it was a nice day, and I was able to monitor all the birds traveling through the yard and using the various feeding stations my wife and I maintain throughout the year, but especially in the winter.
My concern for the welfare of my feathered friends began last Friday when I was out in the country hunting wild turkey.
The song birds I encountered seemed to be suffering and quite lethargic in their quest for weed seeds after a week of ice and 20-degree weather. Juncos, cardinals, Carolina wrens, nuthatches, titmouse, Harris and various other species of sparrows were not the least bit intimidated by my presence in the woods, and the ground-feeding birds slowly moved ahead of me as I walked through the grasses.
A female cardinal even fell prey to the precocious pup, Cassie. I have a poacher on my hands!
You can imagine my surprise when a wild mallard drake landed on the river’s ice and let me walk within 20 yards of it. It never did fly off.
Nature can be harsh and cruel at times. Some animals and birds in the wild will make it, some won’t, whether they are hunted or not.
If you are a bird watcher, you can imagine my surprise when Wifeus hollered out and said she had spotted a brown thrasher scratching and digging under one of the shrubs in the yard, leaf litter flying everywhere. This bird has migrated to Emporia way too early, and I usually don’t see it for a couple of months yet.
Its closest home range is near the Missouri-Arkansas border, more than 200 miles from here as the crow flies.
I contacted Jim Pittman, Kansas Wildlife and Parks small game biologist, Emporia office and asked him about the thrasher.
Jim said, “The brown thrasher is an omnivorous bird but eats mostly insects, lizards, earthworms and snails. They do eat fruits, seeds and berries occasionally and sometimes in large quantities if they can’t find any animal matter. I would suggest feeding something that contains cracked corn, sunflowers and dried fruit.”
I like to make bird feeders for my own personal use and to give as gifts. I’m a believer in “it’s not the cost of something that counts but the meaning in which it was given.” Some people say I’m just cheap. Whatever!
Remember to put your feeders in an area that offers some overhead protection to the birds with adequate escape cover nearby. In the city, common house cats can be deadly predators. Also, sharp-shinned hawks are in our area now and make their living on songbirds using man-made feeders.
Here is a simple and easy-to-make feeder you might want to try:
Use a hole saw and bore holes in a section of dead tree limb or in a 2x2-inch board about 20 inches long. Make these holes several inches apart and about a half inch deep. Clean the holes out and pack them with suet. Put an eye screw in one end of the feeder, connect a cord and tie it to a tree branch. Presto, you have a suet feeder that serves a wide variety of birds, especially woodpeckers and nuthatches.