Winter has settled in around us. At the moment, the snow has melted, replaced with a bitter cold and freezing fog shrouds the mornings.
The snow will eventually fall, as will the cold snap break. It is full on winter in Central Oregon.
As I look up from the keyboard to watch morning replace dawn, there is a new addition to the courtyard . . . just beyond the office window.
Between an aspen tree and the house is a bird feeding station. More to the point, an 8-foot metal pole twisted into the ground and adorned with various means of offering food to the local wildlife.
Up to this winter, we have not been feeding birds at this house. At previous dwellings, we had multiple feeding stations. What changed?
In time we took note of our surroundings and started to look more closely at the space around our small home.
This past summer we made additions to the pergola over a southside patio. This turned in to more time spent sitting outside.
Then this winter we started opening the window blinds in our office space. A trio of thirty foot evergreens screen a small courtyard from the alleyway.
An offset of the garage wall from the main house makes up the other two sides of a semi-private space. There is a 20-foot aspen sitting about six feet away from our office window.
This grove of trees offers resting perches and homes to a variety of small song birds. They were joined this fall by a pair of Scrub Jays, who added to the frenetic display.
As we spent more time looking outside, we noticed a couple of large gray squirrels carting whole shelled peanuts from a neighbor’s feeding station.
Hour after hour they scurried across our yard, over the road, and into the wooded lot to the east of us. It just seemed like a good time for us to get in on the action.
Maybe it’s an old age thing . . . but watching little balls of feathers dart from branch to ground and back is relaxing.
Plus , we’re keeping them fed when food sources are scarce. and temperatures dip. It feels great to help our backyard neighbors.