HARK!

BELOVED CHICKADEES

A heavy snow falls in Waukesha today. Fortunately the raccoons in the sewer are in their dormant mode.

But the chickadees outside the window are busy feeding. Heavy snow is falling, expected to deposit another 12 inches or so on top of what there already is. It's warm, though, at 18. And I'm at a very warm 65 while the birds only a yardstick from my seat are in the "wild."

Normally, the chickadees flit quickly to the edge of the opening in the gourd, grab a sunflower heart and depart, sometimes to fine-carve it on the brackets attached to the window frame holding the wire, or to peck at it on a branch of the juniper tree behind.

Today, they like to linger inside the feeder to eat sheltered from the snowfall, so it affords an opportunity to take some better pictures. We have fed them by hand in northern Wisconsin on days like this. Holding the seeds in an outstretched and ungloved hand, and calling a high "chickadee-dee-dee, chickadee-dee-dee..." with your voice, they would fly in arcing, bobbing flight trajectories to your hand and perch on your fingers while they chose a sunflower seed and then departed.

While they picked a seed, their little feet were warm on your frigid fingers! And their breath steamed from their tiny nostrils. You could see it when they were that close.