The News from Kenabeek

Yesterday morning as I hung out the bird feeders not long past dawn I heard birdsong! Nothing like the dawn chorus of summer, of course, but lovely, and welcome. I’m not sure what bird it was, but I’ve heard it often, so it was definitely one of our regulars. Recently I’ve seen a single redpoll or siskin (just a glimpse so I’m not sure which – a small brownish bird with a heavily striped breast) and this morning there was a female goldfinch, so I think it must have been one of them.

We have lots of rabbit tracks in the snow, but no lynx, at least not that I’ve seen. They usually follow the rabbits, so when there are lots of rabbits there are sure to be lynx around. We have actually seen one only once in our 15 years here – they are beautiful. The one we saw was crossing the road near our driveway; when he saw us, he paused, looked, and then crossed the road into the bush, unhurried. Magnificent.

The birds have made little belly-tracks in the snow under the birch trees – there must be something they like to eat that falls from the trees, because the snow is speckled with tiny dark bits.

My favourite tracks, aesthetically, may just be mouse tracks. They are so tiny! They appear suddenly in the side of a snowbank – they tunnel under the snow as far as possible, to stay safe from predators – and curve away to whatever food source they sense in the neighbourhood, like under the bird feeders for instance. The tracks make a delicate lace-like pattern, and you can almost see the tiny creature scurrying along.

Although it remains pleasantly cold, the sun is so much more intense now that we have melting on the roof every sunny day, and now have a fine fringe of icicles along the eavestrough on the gable on the southeastern side of the house. One of them is as big round as your arm, and extends all the way from the eavestrough to the roof below, like a giant stalactite.