Nature Notes: March Begins

So far March has been like much of the winter. Alternate cool and warm days and everything in between.

The evergreen bush behind the wren above and female cardinal below makes me think of summer although hopefully that won't come too soon.

The male cardinal has a mouth full of seeds.

We had snow in the forecast for Monday which didn't come but I had gotten some seeds just in case, so on the cold mornings put a few out for the birds.

It's wild to think about how I used to have dozens of bird feeders and three suet cages and at times spent more on the wildlife than on human groceries. Many years ago I stopped feeding the wildlife except for extreme cold weather and when it snowed.

This winter I haven't had to feed them at all. It was a gradual change over a number of years when I stopped my wholesale feeding of the wildlife which I'd done for decades. By five or so years ago I had eliminated all the feeders. When the weather is bad I just clear off the deck wall ledge and put out seeds there. I also have an area in my garden with a ledge where I put seeds during bad weather.

I ended up letting my garden go to seed literally and as my yard got wilder and wilder there was lots of home grown food for the animals.

Eventually it got to where my property provided a lot of food for most of the year except when there was a lot of snow and sleet.

I'm worried about the deciduous trees that are getting too far ahead of themselves. The three shots above of the trees that are starting to look like later April worry me. I included the pine tree (four shots above) because I liked the afternoon light. Click for the home of Nature Notes.