It started on Wednesday. By Friday the rain started. We were lucky temperatures hovered around -7 or -8, perhaps colder with the wind. I remember the days we used to say, “No, we don’t get snow in BC”.
BUT this year, it was still cold enough to freeze the pond at the farm. The pond provided glorious skating for 3 days.
Then the rain arrived that night and it was a few more days before the snow was all gone. The freeze and then the warm spell was ideal weather for all the winter bulbs and the daffodils and crocuses began to push to the surface.
Feeding our feathered friends is more important now
My feather friendly mix is a blend of No Mess (No shells, no mess and 100% edible nuts, sunflowers, peanuts. )Blend and a bags of mixed seeds, nuts and sunflowers. I mix the two, twice as much NO MESS to the other mix. This is the best solution if the feeder is near or in the flower beds. I like the 20 lb bags from Wild Birds Unlimited. There is a certain amount of freshness and quality to the bags and the staff is very informative.
Flickers, Sparrows, Juncos, Downy Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, Towhees, Thrushes, even the Pileated Woodpecker, to name a few, were regular visitors. The snow blankets their food sources and it’s even more important to provide. Adding a suet basket provides essential fatty acids that promote healthy feather growth and insulation as well as providing high-energy food source for birds during cold winter months.
