Nothing to report, really. It feels 36% less miserable today than yesterday, thanks to the absence of wind. It’s a sunny noon, and the birds are singing – where have they been, anyway? I heard a familiar two-note call from a Star-breasted Gracken, which I haven’t heard in months. Perhaps they all migrated back in January, where they survive on nuts, seeds, and the bodies of the Grackens who migrated back in December.
Note: there is no such thing as a Star-Breasted Gracken. I made that up. Birds and trees are two things about which I know nothing. Cardinals and evergreens, that’s about it.
Putting the issue of my ignorance aside for a moment – give it a try, the practice will come in handy - that’s one of the things I miss in the winter. No critters. Last summer a raccoon the size of a very large raccoon walked up to the edge of the light in the backyard, and scared the bejeeziz out of my wife so badly she needed bejeeziz transfusions for a week. It was a nice reminder that the city’s not all pavement and people; there’s a rich complex ecosystem thriving in the bushes, full of rabies. I miss the squirrels, too. They’re still around – saw a white one dash by the other day, and you wonder if the other squirrels regard him as some sort of superhero. He has the power of invisibility! But the backyard trees are usually full of the creatures, running around, arguing, chasing each other. We have rabbits aplenty as well. The odd frog. Crickets and cicadas. Miss them all.
The good news? January has eleven hours to go. January is the worst of it; January seems eternal. February is a quick spring to the bipolar mess of March, which feeds our hopes and dashes them in the course of a few days; it thaws, blizzards, rains, freezes, the last convulsions of winter before it tears itself apart and trickles down the drain. Here comes the home stretch. When we see the first Ochre-wing Eastern Starling,* you’ll know it’s spring.
They usually nest in coniferous larches.**
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* not a real bird
** not a real tree
lol
that's some classic lileks.