Winter Blues (Again)

Once again, as in 2015, I am at that point in the year when the cold not only affects what, if any, birds I can see but my mood.

Today I heard sad news about a friend's passing that occurred days before the anniversary of another friend's passing. It was cloudy and, while not windy, very cold. Regardless, I was restless so I left the house to calm myself by walking in some of my favorite birding sites nearby.

(Margo D. Beller)

I was not expecting much. This is not spring or autumn, when interesting birds are passing through the area. It isn't even summer when the insects that torment me are caught by birds to feed their young. This is winter, another in a consecutive string of very cold days.

I needed to get out anyway.

When I got to the path along the Whippany River, I found the river full of ice until I got to the outflow from the nearby sewage treatment plant where the water was warmer. Thanks to having less ice there were ducks - 13 mallards and three pairs of wood ducks. That was promising. There were many people on the paved path but no land birds to keep me there.

So I drove to another part of the path a short distance away where I found only a cardinal over the more-frozen river.

Then I drove to a third area. There was no river nearby but there were birds, albeit birds I could've seen from my kitchen window: titmice, cardinals, jay, juncos, white-throated and song sparrows, white-breasted nuthatch. A couple of Canada geese, likely locals, flying overhead. All that was missing were the hordes of house finches that sit in the feeders and eat relentlessly.

Front yard, a few years ago (Margo D. Beller)

After over 30 minutes of walking and looking at these winter birds I realized I had numbed myself to the point where I could not feel the stick in my gloved hand. I carefully hurried back to the car and its heater. I defrosted somewhat as I drove home, then drank hot tea and added layers to warm me.

I do this birding in the cold because there is always the chance I might find something interesting. Mainly, however, I get restless in winter and get depressed if I stay inside too long. Darkness comes early and morning daylight comes late. Most of the trees have lost all their leaves. The garden has finally been put to bed. The cold seems relentless, making my head ache and accentuating the pains that have increased as I age. It is not my favorite time of year.

What I can look forward to from my kitchen window.
(Margo D. Beller)

This day I'm writing about is a Sunday. I knew that the "birdier" sites such as Great Swamp and Troy Meadows would have people seeking birds as part of the annual Christmas Bird Count. I also knew that at this time of year many birders head down the shore to the places along the ocean where the ducks go to winter and the water isn't likely to freeze. Maybe I'll get to these areas, too, with my husband driving. 

But for now, feeling my mortality, I wanted to stay close to home. 

Frozen but Surviving

December 2019 (Margo D. Beller)

I have never seen either "Frozen" movie but this week I got an inkling of what it is like to live in a frozen world.

In the past week we've had freezing rain that coated tree limbs, power lines, blades of grass and shrubs; followed two days later by an intense snow squall that threw about an inch of white on everything, including the roads; then came the intense cold. Only now, on this first full day of winter, is there any expectation of above-freezing warmth to melt the ice and allow my bowed-down yew hedge to rise and me to add matter to my compost pile.

In the meantime, as I watch the thermometer, the sun is shining prettily on the iced limbs of the trees and shrubs I can see from my porch.

Bowed boughs (Margo D. Beller)

It has been a hard week, particularly because I have started a new job and, for the first time in years, I must commute into New York. The sun rises later but I must rise earlier, and I must dress in layers to be ready for the harsh cold in my town and the (somewhat) warmer temperature when I arrive in the concrete jungle. Today, on the porch, I can see the sun is lower and its arc much shorter from when I could last spend time out here.

Feeders are out, but aside from some titmice and a cardinal in one of the bushes, there's been very little activity.  But I know that will change because when the feeders have come in at night this week they have been nearly empty.

In midtown Manhattan, it's another story. If I have the time to walk through some of the smaller parks near my office, it is easy to find what I call the "usual three" types of birds - house sparrows, pigeons and starlings. These birds will eat anything, including bread tossed by people. To survive they have adapted to life and people in the city.

Frozen feeder baffle (Margo D. Beller)

So, too, have white-throated sparrows, which I'm now finding so often in my city travels I may have to start referring to the "usual four." While these sparrows don't go for tossed bread, they manage to survive by scratching the soil for insects or gleaning what they can find (insects or fruit) from foliage. At night, they roost where they can - the other day I heard something as I walked along Madison Ave., and found a white-throat atop an office tower display of Christmas trees surrounded by concrete!

White-throats are winter visitors - they are common in my yard at this time of year - but catbirds are not. On the coldest day of this past week, when the wind chill in New York City was in the single digits, I found one catbird sitting at the base of a shrub in the sun. Catbirds have been gone from my yard for months (usually the white-throats replace the catbirds) and yet the previous week, before the frozen rain and cold, I had found a total of five catbirds in two Manhattan parks.

Sun on ice (Margo D. Beller)

I was astounded. They were not perturbed by my closeness at all. One, in fact, sat on a railing and looked at me. Then the cold came. Obviously, these birds either fly to another, more hospitable habitat, work harder to find food in this park or die. On this day at least one catbird has managed to survive. But it is a tough world out there and a small bird faces large odds, so who knows what happened to the catbirds and other birds I've seen over the last two weeks that should've been elsewhere (including a brown thrasher, swamp sparrow and ovenbird).

No doubt the annual Christmas Bird Count, where people comb the streets and parks all over the U.S., if not the world, to see what birds are around at this time of year, will find all sorts of birds in the urban parks. I know there is an annual count in New York's Central Park, that oasis of green that attracts dozens of types of birds during the spring and fall migration periods and likely many staying for the winter. But for me, finding a bird in a small patch of green in an area surrounded by traffic, noise and people is more than just a bit of wonder, it is a small miracle. Like that catbird basking in the cold sun.

I've been thinking of it a lot as I make my way along in this frozen, hard world.

Frozen world (Margo D. Beller)